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Transcript of JMT Journal 43
Cover photo From the summit of Todun nearReinigeadal in Harris, looking up LochSeaforth. ©2007 James Smith Photography.One of many great vistas available fromJames at Oiseval Gallery, Brue, Isle of Lewis.www.oiseval.co.uk.
Chairman Dick BalharryHon Secretary Donald ThomasHon Treasurer Keith GriffithsDirector Nigel HawkinsSC081620 Charitable Company Registered in Scotland
JMT offices
Membership (all enquiries about existing membership)41 Commercial Street, Edinburgh EH6 6JDTel 0845 458 8356, [email protected] Please quote your membership number.
Edinburgh office41 Commercial Street, Edinburgh EH6 6JD0131 554 0114, fax 0131 555 2112,[email protected] development, new membership, generalenquiries
Tel 0845 458 2910, [email protected] the John Muir Award
Registered officeTower House, Station Road, Pitlochry PH16 5AN01796 470080, Fax 01796 473514For Director, finance and administration, landmanagement, policy
n If your phone call to an office is not answered,please leave a message on the answer machine and amember of staff will ring you back.
Senior staff
DirectorNigel Hawkins01796 470080, [email protected]
Development managerDavid Picken0131 554 0114, [email protected]
Head of finance and administrationAlison Russell01796 470080, [email protected]
John Muir Award managerRob Bushby0845 458 2910, [email protected]
Head of land managementAndrew Campbell 01796 470080, [email protected]
Policy officerHelen McDade01796 470080, [email protected]
Senior conservationistKeith Miller01528 544741, [email protected]
JOURNALPublished every springand autumn. NextJournal, February 2008.
EditorMike Merchant
Editorial
01488 608672
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Newbury, Berkshire
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A beach on Harris
Cover story, page 18
A yurt in Etive
John Muir Award, page 17
A marshal of Napoleon
Books, page 25
2 AbstractionHamish Brown looks at the smaller things.
3 News pagesLatest on our renewables campaign plus BenNevis memorials, millipedes at Sandwood andmore.
9 Director’s NotesWhy the Wild Landscape Appeal matters somuch; John Muir Award’s magnificent milestone.
11 The explorer’s guide to GeodhaMeirilAlison Napier’s wild writing prize-winner.
13 John Muir Award – the first 10yearsThe John Muir Award has reached more than50,000 people since its launch. Facts and figures,one family’s story, and stunning image portfolio.
18 COVER STORY: Harris & LewisNorth Harris Trust and Galson Estate Trust; plusthe walks, wildlife and heritage of these islands
25 Books The French MacDonald; the Mountains Look onMarrakech; Hugh Miller, and more.
27 Malcolm SlesserRecalled by Ken Crocket.
28 Letters + JMT eventsDays in Knoydart; more points of view on energy.
30 Members’ classified ads
32 Last Word‘His single measure was beauty’Bob Aitken revisits Murray’s ‘HighlandLandscape’.
JOHN MUIR TRUST
No 43 October 2007
Opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily represent the policies of the Trust.
2 John Muir Trust Journal
We tend to look at the big picture when in the
Outdoors, and certainly the JMT areas offer
spectacularly big skyscapes, landscapes and
seascapes, but there is a great deal of touching
beauty to be seen in the small things: the glitter of
dew on a ripe summer morning, watching a crab
move among flowing weed through clear water, the
circling of a tree by bracket fungi, fallen leaves
making an abstract pattern on veined schist, snow
turning a row of thistle heads into a serving of
coupes maison… that sort of thing.
Here then is a selection of what I regard as Natural
Abstracts and I’m sure I’m not the only one who
would choose them over any or all the recent Turner
Prize winners!
The abstracts come from:
Falls of Orchy, Sutherland, St Andrews, Benarty, Butt
of Lewis, Carn Glas-Choire, Steele’s Knowe and Strath.
l Author and mountaineer Hamish Brown is a long
standing JMT member. Hamish’s recent book is
reviewed on page 26.
ABSTR CTIONHamish Brown
John Muir Trust Journal 3
News
HE JOHN MUIR TRUST’S CURRENT ‘WILDLANDSCAPES’ appeal will both raise fundsand boost membership, so as to meet the
growing challenges to wild land from renewableenergy schemes.
It is the most concerted media campaign theTrust has run.
Nearly 11,000 members and supporters receivedthe appeal leaflet in late September. Banner advertsappeared in online editions of The Herald and TheScotsman, with further promotion onoutdoorsmagic.com. December issues of Trail andCountry Walking magazines are carrying editorial,and adverts or inserts. The Trust’s previous‘renewables’ leaflet and recruitment letter weredoor-dropped to about 10,000 households along theBeauly-Denny power line corridor.
Our most recent intervention in the power lineinquiry was about its effect in the neighbourhood ofSchiehallion, whose eastern side the JMT has ownedsince 1999. As we went to press, JMT director NigelHawkins was ready to give evidence to the inquiry'slocal Perth & Kinross session.
The pylon line in this area will sweep across viewsto, and from, Schiehallion. It runs 3 miles east fromthe summit, and the 65 m (200 ft) pylons would bepotentially visible for much of the usual way up thehill, which the Trust has just restored. Nigelchallenged the official environmental statementabout the effect of the line. Our opinion is that ‘witha handful of viewpoint wirescapes and even fewerphotomontages, [it] does not do justice to thelandscape and visual impacts’.
The Trust would like the Reporters to the inquiryto make a site visit to the Schiehallion area.
JMT’s policy officer Helen McDade spokepreviously at the inquiry’s strategic session, and alsoprotested at the Inverness session (about theTomich-Dundreggan section and the CorrieyairackPass), and the Newtonmore session (about theFeagour-Dalwhinnie and Drumochter Pass areas).
While the Beauly-Denny inquiry takes most staffand trustee time at present, the Trust has to beready to make the case for wild land at otherScottish locations, especially in Lewis where three
very large industrial wind developments would beseen from much of Lewis and part of Harris, andwould damage peatland and harm wildlife.
The campaign is being co-ordinated by SamBaumber. He said that ‘Most people have joined theTrust on the strength of our wild land purchases,principles of safeguarding wild land, and our workwith local communities. This is a new appeal on acomplex issue.
‘The 10,000 members of the JMT can do a lot bydonating vital funds towards our campaigning work,and can help raise awareness by tracking down localnewspapers and newsletters and, ideally,approaching them to see if we can gain any editorialor free advert space.’l Helen, [email protected], Sam, [email protected],or www.jmt.org/wild-landscapes.The JMT’s renewable energy policy is atwww.jmt.org/policies.See also: Director’s Notes, page 9; Harris and Lewis,cover feature, from page 18.
Sleeping around on allScotland’s islands
Baggers and other assorted list-tickers have beenjoined by island sleepers, following the lead ofYorkshireman Andy Strangeway, who in Augustbecame the first person to sleep overnight on all 162Scottish islands of over 40 ha area.
On 28/29 August Andy ‘completed’ on Soay in StKilda. He has given his name to the activity. Hisprogress is well documented on www.island-man.co.uk and his adventures are featured inthe magazine Scottish Islands Explorer.
Andy’s tally includes North Rona and pictured
here is Leac Mhor Fianuis, the part of that remoteisle where Frank Fraser Darling secured his hutwhile undertaking research in the 1930s.
• Even stranger – the surname ‘Strangeway’originates from ‘strang was’ which means a personwho lives in a place prone to flooding by ‘strongwash’.
Nevis memorials to beremovedLarge numbers of memorial plaques are still beingleft on the summit of Ben Nevis.
The Nevis Partnership recently decided afterconsiderable consultation to remove all memorialsfrom the summit and to discourage new ones.
But despite widespread publicity, plaques are stillbeing glued to rocks and new cairns are being built,mostly to commemorate those who have died andwho have expressed a love for Ben Nevis.
The Chairman of the Nevis Partnership, outdoorwriter and broadcaster Cameron McNeish, hasexpressed dismay at the continuing practice. Hesaid: ‘I’m sure people are leaving these things in goodfaith and are unaware that there are now alternativearrangements in place to enable departed relativesand friends to be remembered in a tangible way, butthe fact of the matter is that any new plaque ormemorial that is left on Ben Nevis will be removedand put into storage until identified by the owner.’
Existing plaques will be disposed of only after aconcerted effort has been made to contact thoseresponsible for placing them. In their place is acollective memorial and place of contemplation, inthe form of a stone seat and cairn among trees nearthe visitor centre in Glen Nevis. It looks towards themountain.
During the autumn of 2006 and the early summerof 2007 over 50 plaques were removed from thesummit area. In only a few cases has it been possibleto identify the person commemorated. For mostthere is no evidence why the memorial had beenplaced on Ben Nevis or if the person had everclimbed the mountain. Some are believed tocommemorate a pet rather than a person.
More funds and more memberssought in continuing campaign on renewables
From left: Schiehallion across Loch Rannoch; shieling ruins at the head of Loch Sealg on Lewis, a beautiful area which would be very badly affected by both the Paircand Beinn Mhor wind turbine schemes.
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JohnH
arrison
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4 John Muir Trust Journal
Sandy Maxwell writes– In North Lewis, JMT volunteers were welcomed in latesummer by Ranger Julie Sievewright and Chairman Norman Thompson to UrrasOighreachd Ghabhsainn (Galson Estate Trust) along with our partnershipsmanager, Mick Blunt. Tasks included painting the hide at the Loch StiapabhatLocal Nature Reserve, gathering clover seeds from the machair, dry stonewalling at Galson Farm and work around the world famous play park at Eoropie:removing invasive plants such as butterbur and monkey flower from the burn,finishing off a dry stone seat and painting some of the picnic benches.
Pictures L–R Lighthouse at Butt of Lewis at sunset; moonlight view from the tentsnear there; road testing the Eoropie stone bench all Alan Scott.For the following week the focus moved to the North Harris Trust where wehelped them to plant around 12,000 trees as part of their Glen Langadaleforestry project. Battling through the rain and midges while the rest of the UKwas bathing in glorious sunshine we made a dent in the 38,000 mixed broadleaftrees that the NHT will eventually plant in this beautiful and remote glen. Welook forward to working with both Trusts in 2008!
Recruitment man
Tasked with membershiprecruitment for the rest of 2007,Sam Baumber got used to tacklingchallenges as coordinator of lastyear’s epic Journey for the Wild.
Sam has worked for the Trust forfour years as manager of theActivities Programme. The target ofrecruiting 20,000 new members tothe Trust over the next 5–10 years is‘ambitious, but essential tostrengthen the Trust for the future’.• Sam takes over from Fiona Allanwho has moved on down – byemigrating to Australia.
Help Scotland’s bird atlasHave buzzards continued to expandtheir range? Are cuckoos declining?Where do snipe winter?
From November, volunteers willcover Scotland’s 1011 10-kmsquares to help answer thesequestions. Bird Atlas 2007–11 willshow how recent changes in thecountryside have affected our birds.The results will form the basis forfuture bird conservation.
It’s easy to take part either byrecording the birds in any 2x2-kmsquare (two hourly visits in summerand winter) or by sending in any birdrecords you note whilst out walkingin any 10-km square.
Check www.birdatlas.net orcontact Scottish organiser BobSwann, 07919 378876,[email protected].
Heritage pathsprojectPeople will be able to find out moreabout their heritage at the same timeas enjoying the outdoors, thanks to athree-year project launched byScotWays, the Scottish Rights of Wayand Access Society.
ScotWays three-year HeritagePaths Project will enter heritagepaths in a national database coveringtheir history and heritage value aswell as surveys and maps. Volunteerswill be involved in researching andsurveying the routes. Informationwill be on the internet and in leafletsand a book, and maps and signpostswill encourage users. A full-timeproject officer will lead the work.
Among Scotland’s best knownheritage paths are:• The Corrieyairack Pass – a Wade
road from Laggan to FortAugustus.
• The Lairig Ghru, in the Cairngormmountains – probably the best-known high pass in Scotland,formerly used by drovers takingcattle between Deeside andSpeyside.
• The Herring Road – route fromDunbar to Lauder used byfishwives selling fish.
• Cauldstane Slap – old drove roadfrom Mid Calder to West Lintonover the Pentland Hills, whichcontinues on to Peebles and StMary’s Loch. It is marked onRoy’s map of 1755 and was usedby Bonnie Prince Charlie escapingfrom Hanoverian soldiers in 1746.
• St Cuthbert’s Way – a pilgrim’sroute from Melrose toLindisfarne.ScotWays Chairman George
Menzies commented: ‘We aredelighted that both Scottish NaturalHeritage and the Heritage LotteryFund have recognised theimportance of this project and havegiven it substantial grant funding(£60,000 from SNH and £50,000from HLF).
‘We are fortunate that,throughout Scotland, there are stillso many routes of great heritageinterest. South of the border, manyroutes like these have long sincedisappeared under tarmac andconcrete.’
Muirshiel windfarm From the Scottish Council for NationalParks’ newsletter:‘The fight to save the ClydeMuirshiel Regional Park fromindustrialisation through windfarmdevelopment received a significantboost recently when the Corlic Hillwindfarm was finally refused byScottish ministers nearly two yearsafter they received the Reporter’srecommendations. This degree ofprocrastination should never beallowed to happen again and effortsthrough Freedom of Information, tomake sure that it doesn’t, are likelyto continue.’
Next, please
The JOURNAL is changing its springpublication date from April toFebruary.
HF Holidays
John Muir Trust Journal 5
Award milestone inWalesThe John Muir Award celebrated its10,000th Award in Wales on 17August.
Congratulations to Clare Higgins,14, from Milton Keynes, whoreceived her certificate (above) fromSir Meuric Rees, former chairman ofthe Outward Bound Wales board ofgovernors.
Clare was on a 3-week OutwardBound Wales summer classic courseat the Aberdyfi Centre. The youngpeople there had the opportunity toexplore the mountains and waters ofSnowdonia, learned about theenvironmental pressures in the areaand helped with conservation on alocal farm.
Hugo Iffla, John Muir Awardmanager for Wales said: ‘Thisrepresents the growing importance ofthe John Muir Award in Wales, andthe growing partnership withOutward Bound. Participation offersopportunities to raise awareness ofthe natural environment andsustainability issues.’
Finance moves northAlison Russell, head of finance &administration, reports: Nicola Wylie,our finance assistant, moved on topastures new in August and is nowworking closer to home in Colinton.Nicola always brought a ‘can do’attitude to her work and she will besorely missed by me, other Trust staffand all who phone into our Leithoffice where she was based.
We have moved the financefunction out of Edinburgh to Pitlochry,the Trust’s registered office. This isalready saving travel time, costs andemissions. The good news is thatNicola’s replacement has alreadystarted with the Trust – FrancesLogan lives locally and started with usin September. Her email address [email protected]. Frances is a highlyqualified individual and is settling in
well. On an ecological front, four
Pitlochry staff members are now in anactive car sharing scheme. We arealready reducing our mileage by up to388 miles per week which allowingfor the odd day off is in the region of15,000 – 20,000 miles per annum.
Volunteers and JMTTrustees recently agreed thatvolunteers should play a larger role inthe work of the Trust, provided thiscan be done in a way that producesclear benefit. The management teamwill now look at how an increasedinput from volunteers could bemanaged.
Since 1983 volunteers have beeninvolved in all aspects of JMT work,from the governance of the Trust, tomailing merchandise, doingconservation, leading adventurousactivities, delivering the John MuirAward and even painting the ceiling!
JMT’s Articles of Association saythat we should ‘encourage voluntaryparticipation in the conservation andrenewal of wild places’.l If you’re interested in this, or if
you have experience inmanaging volunteers that youthink would help the Trust,please contact Sam Baumber,0131 554 0114 [email protected].
Helping hand fromMorvernFrom the Morvern peninsula, south ofArdnamurchan, Scottish Linen, whoare advertising in this Journal, producea range of high-quality linens withScottish themes, such as Scots pineand thistles.
Owner Deborah Watson isdonating part of the profit on sales tothe John Muir Trust and we are verygrateful for this support.www.scottishlinen.co.uk.
News
PaulGunn Welcome and unwelcome visitors at Sandwood
Cathel Morrison, Sandwood conservation manager, is overseeing a steadyenhancement of the car park at Blairmore, the gateway to the Sandwood Baytrack.
‘I have put up our new notice board on the wall of the toilet block. It has beenvery kindly made by students of Thurso Technical College free of charge – theyeven supplied the materials. Thanks to them and to Kevin Sutherland, theteacher who organised it all for me. We had a volunteer work party doing adyking course in August. Last year we built a seat and a shelter for the litter bin,we ended up with some stones left over and with the first seat proving sopopular decided to build another to balance things up. At the same time theJohn Muir Award kids involved in the activities programme shifted thedonations box from the carpark entrance to the side of the building.’
Less welcome visitors are the dreaded millipedes who have plagued the estatefor 3–4 years. ‘They reared their scaly little bodies once again, to the annoyanceof Droman, Balchrick and Blairmore residents. The problem got quite a lot ofmedia exposure including TV. Many suggestions for a cure were proposed andboth JMT and SNH were consulted, but we’re no further forward. They havenow retired to their winter quarters and we’re hoping that next year they willdecide to take a foreign vacation rather than pestering us.’
l If you have an answer to the millipede problem, please get in touch.
Quinag deer management
The JMT now has a comprehensive deer management plan for Quinag estatewhich is aimed at a reduction in overall deer grazing pressures on the estateover a 5-year period. This ties in with our aims and objectives within theWildland Biodiversity project. This current season is the first year of the plan,which was produced in conjunction with the neighbouring Ardvar estate, and atotal of 45 stags and 45 hinds plus associated calves are to be culled.
JMT has reached a close working relationship with Ardvar estate and they areundertaking this year’s cull on Quinag.
JMT will help with Knoydart woodlandrestructuring
The JMT has committed to contributing £10,000 over the next two yearstowards the Knoydart Forest Trust’s Forest Access and Regeneration project.This is a substantial project aimed primarily at restructuring the Inveriewoodlands from exotic mono-cultural conifer plantation to a mosaic of native,mixed and restored ancient woodland, and growing a sustainable communityasset including growing local-scale quality timber and improved public access.
The JMT funding is targeted towards: • Native woodland regeneration • Restoration of ancient native woodland through removal of Rhododendron
ponticum and gradual removal of exotic conifers • Conversion of mono-cultural conifer plantation to mixed woodland • Eradication of Rhododendron ponticum
EricM
eadows
Berghaus ad bleeds 3 mm L and foot
Wilderness writing2008Following on from last year’s successthe JMT is again running a writingcompetition at the Fort WilliamMountain Festival 2008. The brief issimply a piece of writing about a wildplace, up to 1200 words in length.
The Arvon Centre near Beauly hascome forward to offer a place oneither a retreat or one of its wellknown writing courses as a prize.Another prize is offered from TheOrkney Croft on Hoy.
One of the 2007 prize-winningwriters, Linda Cracknell, is running awriting workshop at the festival.Linda received a Creative ScotlandAward to complete a series of‘journey-essays’ which link walkingand writing. She says that ‘Walking isvital to my imagination and creativeprocess . Through a series ofworkshops at festivals , I hope tostimulate others to link creativity,writing and “wilderness”experiences.’
The closing date is 11 February2008. For an entry form and furtherdetails about the competition and
the writing workshop go towww.mountainfestival.co.uk orcontact Alison Austin [email protected]. • Read a 2007 prize-winning piece by
Alison Napier on page 11.
Hear all aboutit…National parks Does your local society or specialinterest group have meetingsaddressed by outside speakers? Sixty volunteers acting for theCouncil for National Parks (CNP)are on hand to offer illustrated talksalmost anywhere in England &Wales. They show the Parks’ beauty,diversity and cultural heritage; andexplain challenges like natureconservation, sustainabledevelopment, quarrying, energy,tourism, transport and militarytraining.
The volunteers charge only travelcosts, though some donation to CNPis strongly encouraged.
Information and bookings: AdrianThornton (himself a JMT member),Phoenix Cottage, Cassington,Witney, Oxon OX29 4DL; phone01865-880359.
INVITATION TO A TREK COMMUNITY ACTION NEPAL is recruiting for a charity trek in2008 in the Helambu Region of Nepal. Easily reached from theKathmandu valley, this is a hard but immensely rewarding trek,suitable for fit walkers of average ability. The ridge-top trail leadsthrough areas increasingly influenced by Buddhism and affords viewsof Annapurna and Everest on clear days. CAN was founded by JMT Lifetime Achievement Award holderDoug Scott, and operates mainly in the poorer middle hill regions ofNepal. Its goal is to bring long-term benefits to the lives of the ruralpopulation, focusing on sustainable health and education projects.The £1600 trek fee covers flights, transfers, accommodation and allfood while trekking. Trekkers are asked to pledge to raise £750 ormore to support CAN’s projects in Nepal – fundraising support isavailable.Community Action Nepal, Warwick Mill, Warwick Bridge, CarlisleCA4 8RR, [email protected], 01228 564488, www.canepal.org.uk.
John Muir Trust Journal 7
News
your walks ad
Staff and volunteers from the JMT’sWildland Biodiversity Projectconducted a water vole survey onBen Nevis estate this summer. Liz Auty from the project writes:Several colonies were found andthese signs of activity are great newsfor the Trust and for the voles!
Traditionally seen as a lowlandspecies, Britain’s most threatenedmammal is surviving in uplandrefuges where the American Minkpredator is less likely to venture.Studies by Xavier Lambin andcolleagues at the University ofAberdeen have found water volecolonies in patches of suitablehabitat in upland areas, part of largerpopulations known as
‘metapopulations’. Even in theseharsh places, voles have beenknown to travel more than 2 kmwhen dispersing and looking for abreeding area. Reduced grazingpressure should improve habitatsfor this species, and the project willsurvey for water voles on otherTrust properties.
Rebecca Denny ran a training dayin the area to help staff to look forwater vole signs and habitats in anupland area, conduct surveys andfind out more about their biologyand distribution.
l More about the wildlandbiodiversity project in the February2008 Journal.
Astonishing weatherin the FortAlison Austin, Nevis conservationofficer, has interesting news for peoplefrom the south:The news this year was full of it –the floods, the rain – so a normalsummer in Fort William surely?
Well, although the rest of thecountry suffered unusually highrainfall I was not convinced we hadany more than usual here, so Ichecked with NTS Glencoe whohave a weather station – and yes,the rainfall was not particuarlyhigher than average.
What has been different is thetemperature; it has been muchcooler with a lot more cloudy dayshere in Fort William. So not manydays for wearing shorts – but themidges usually put paid to thatanyway!
Membership line
Reminder: enquiries about existingJMT membership should go to our
membership secretary Jane Anderson.Jane is on 0845 458 8356 and
Good news for water voles – and JMT
Lochs and Glens Sustrans, thesustainable transport group,brought out maps and a guide thisyear to National Cycle NetworkRoute 7, Carlisle to Inverness. Boththe guide and the two (north andsouth) route maps are entertainingand informative to walkers anddrivers as well as bikers, especiallyon the all-important business ofgetting in, or round, towns on theroute. www.systrans.org.uk,0845 113 0065.
Dick
Balharry
8 John Muir Trust Journal
The John Muir Trust protects some of the mosticonic and inspiring wild places in the UK. Join us
today and become a guardian of wild land.
The John Muir Trust safeguards Ben Nevis - Schiehallion - Sandwood Bay
Quinag, Sutherland - Red Cuillins, Isle of Skye Ladhar Bheinn, Knoydart
in partnership with local communities.
JOIN US TODAY!
Annual £24 Family £36 Life £550
Receive a FREE print of Bla Bheinn, Isle of Skye (above),land protected by the John Muir Trust. (Print size 12” x 10”)
Love the Wild?Help keep it wild.
Join the John Muir Trust
Help us conserve wild land for nature and people,campaign against threats to it and inspire
everyone to value wild places.
Join online www.jmt.org for only £2 per month
BECOME A GUARDIAN OF WILD LAND
Please send your details with a cheque to ‘John Muir Trust’,41 Commercial Street, Edinburgh EH6 6JD,or call 0131 554 0114 and mention this advert
Scottish Linen ad.
Use 0.25 pt border box.
TIFF and original JPEG supplied.
Lots of fun in the John Muir Award 10th Birthday Auction Bid for some very special items in our e-auction, to beheld from 20 Oct–20 Nov. See links from www.johnmuiraward.org . Lots include, when going to press:
H Leo Houlding’s micro-fleece worn on his Everest Summit day –
signed and dated (unsure if washed).
H An original cartoon by Steven Appleby (above)
H Two David Bellamy paintings completed on the Trust’s Journey
for the Wild
H Watercolour painting by landscape and portrait artist (and
Trustee) Will Williams
H Winter training course at Glenmore Lodge
H Signed copy of ‘Let My People Go Surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard.
H A one-day conservation blitz from Fife Air Cadets Conservation
Group – create a pond, clear an area, biodiversity survey….
H Join geologist Angus Miller from Geowalks for a day walk explor-
ing rocks and landscapes, anywhere in south/central Scotland,
date by agreement, for an individual, family or group of up to 15.
H Framed Peter Cairns photo (‘mist laden pine forest at dawn’)
H Watercolour of Schiehallion by Hilda C Duggan, donated by Dick
Clark.
H A day on a JMT property of your choice for 1 or 2, Mar/June
2008, with a JMT ranger. Biodiversity.work at first hand.
H John Muir treasures: ‘John of the Mountains’ (journals, hardback
printed 1938) — John Muir Tribute CD — Californian quarter,
John Muir and Half Dome, 2005 — Limited edition stamp.
John Muir Trust Journal 9
Our members tell us time and again that protecting
wild landscapes is the number one reason they joined
the Trust. We hope members who already support that
cause through being members can give further support
to the Trust in facing the challenges ahead.
A new leaflet has been sent to all members and
supporters and this is also available on line at
www.jmt.org. Just click on Wild Landscape Appeal.
People who are not members but who wish to sign up
for this campaign can become members online.
Members who feel strongly about the threats to wild
land are encouraged to consider responding to the
appeal for vitally needed funds and at the same time to
recruit new members to the cause by joining the Trust.
Putting the Case for Wild Land to theNew GovernmentThe Trust is looking forward to working with the new
Government in Scotland and putting forward the case
for wild land at every opportunity.
The new SNP government is a minority
administration and so needs the support of other parties
to get legislation through Parliament although many
executive matters, and the whole style and priorities of
Government in Scotland will be determined by the SNP.
Through the work of our policy officer Helen
McDade, receptions we have held at the Parliament in
Edinburgh, engagement with last year’s Journey for the
Wild and other events we have established a dialogue
with key politicians of all parties and we wish to build
on this in encouraging policies which safeguard and
extend wild land.
A great benefit of having the Parliament in Scotland is
that it has increased the accessibility of politicians and
civil servants and advisers. We have found widespread
expressions of support for wild land and its importance
nationally and internationally but the need is to
encourage and help politicians turn that into practical
action.
This was a skill demonstrated so ably by John Muir in
the United States and it is right that we should aspire to
follow in his footsteps.
ITH ALARM BELLS RINGING even more loudly
all over the country over the threat to wild
landscapes posed by intrusive developments
including large-scale onshore industrial wind farms, the
Trust is gearing up again on the campaigning front.
A Wild Landscape Appeal has been made to members
and other supporters to consider contributing towards
the cost of mounting effective challenges to those
developments which would cause the most harm to our
wild places.
At the same time the Trust is working to convince
politicians and other decision makers of the need for
changes in national landscape planning legislation and
protection.
With threats to the environment through climate
change and global warming the Trust is a 100 per cent
advocate for green energy – but it must be provided in
ways that do not cause other harm to our environment
and especially the qualities of our finest wild land which
make it of such national and international importance.
The culprits are those who propose large scale
industrial wind turbine developments on, or very close
to, important wild areas.
There is a need for a ‘green energy mix’ with energy
coming from a range of green sources including onshore
wild farms but these must be sensitively sited.
We fear that in the dash for green energy too many
eggs are being placed in one basket – onshore wind
farms – and that more needs to be invested in energy
conservation and in securing energy from the sea and
bio fuels, and from small scale options.
The Trust lends its support to sensitively located
community renewable energy projects such as the three
turbines proposed by the North Harris Trust but is
opposed to large scale schemes such as the hundreds of
turbines threatening the Lewis landscapes.
The Trust has devoted a great deal of its resources to
opposing the proposed new giant power line marching
down the spine of Scotland from Beauly to Denny. In
doing so we have proposed practical alternatives such as
sub-sea links, or upgrade and extension of the existing
east coast connector.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES with Nigel Hawkins
Continued over
FUNDS NEEDED TO OPPOSETHREATS TO WILD LANDFundraising and recruitment through the Wild Landscape Appeal
W
10 John Muir Trust Journal
Director’s Notes, continued
Award Hits MagnificentMilestonesMinister for Children and Early Years Adam
Ingram MSP joined us for the celebrations
marking the presentation of the 50,000th
John Muir Award.
12 year-old Samantha Pettigrew (Right in
picture above) received the award from the
Minister at Loch Lomond and the Trossachs
National Park and it seemed very
appropriate that the 50,000th award in the
name of the founder of national parks
should be presented at Scotland’s first
national park.
I am sure John Muir would have been
delighted with the project Samantha and her
group from the Helensburgh-based
Backchat Youth Project were doing not only
experiencing the lochs, woods and
mountains of the park but learning about
the environmental pressures and how they
could help to protect this special landscape
for future generations to enjoy. Taking part
had been a real eye-opener for the group,
some of whom had not had the opportunity
before to visit a wild place.
Mr Ingram presented award certificates to
the group and said he was pleased to see how
much the young people enjoyed taking part.
Congratulations went to Toby Clark, JMA
West of Scotland manager, Rob Bushby, JMA
manager, and all those involved helping
reach this magnificent milestone.
Only a week later another milestone was
reached with the presentation of the
10,000th award in Wales. This took place at
the Aberdyfi Centre and the recipient was 14
year-old Clare Higgins from Milton Keynes.
We welcomed Sir Meuric Rees, former
chairman of the Outward Bound Board for
Wales, who in presenting the award to Clare
paid tribute to the principles of the award.
Congratulations were also due to Hugo
Iffla, JMA manager for Wales, and all those
who have helped achieve the remarkable
total of 10,000 awards in Wales.
New Trustees WelcomedThree new Trustees made an excellent start
with the Trust when they headed to
Knoydart – which played a key role in our
formation – for the first Trustees meeting
following their election this year.
They were solicitor Walter Semple, from
Glasgow, fresh from doing battle on behalf
of JMT and others at the Beauly-Denny
power line inquiry; John Hutchison, former
Lochaber Area manager for the Highland
Council, and Will Boyd-Wallis, land
manager with the Cairngorms National
Park and former policy and partnerships
manager with JMT. John and Will were on
very familiar territory – especially John who
played a vital role in the community buyout
of the estate when he was executive secretary
for the Knoydart Foundation.
The meeting at Inverie Hall was part of a
weekend of walking and talking shared with
the Knoydart Foundation. Trustees were very
impressed with the progress made by the
foundation in the management of the estate
since the buyout over eight years ago, and
wished them well in the future.
Thanks to SNHI am pleased to report that SNH has entered
into a three year funding agreement with the
Trust relating to many of our key activities in
land management and education. This
follows the signing of a Concordat between
SNH and JMT agreeing to work together on
a whole range of matters of mutual interest.
The three year support from SNH helps us
to plan projects and activities for the longer
term and is very much appreciated by
Trustees and staff.
A Private Member’s debate in the Scottish Parliament on the conduct of the Beauly-Denny Inquiry washeld on 19 September and we are delighted by the way it went. The debate was brought by Murdo Fraser,Conservative MSP, and, whilst it focused on the inquiry process, MSPs made very clear their majorconcerns about the proposed electricity line’s effects. Excellent contributions came from MSPs of allparties who all expressed their concern. The Trust’s contribution, alongside other objectors, in bringingforward the case was highlighted. The credit for this goes to our policy officer Helen McDade who hasdone a superb job in marshalling our forces. I think this is a real marker for the Minister, Jim Mather. Hereplied to the debate (there is no vote on Private Member’s debates) and whilst he cannot comment onthe substantive issues, and said that the Inquiry must finish its work, the views expressed and the presenceof more than fifty objectors in the gallery will have made an impression.
On the summit of Schiehallion during the 2006Journey for the Wild: John Swinney MSP, nowCabinet Secretary for Finance and SustainableGrowth, and Nigel Hawkins with, foreground, PeteWishart MP and a John Muir Award paricipant fromEast Ayrshire's Doon Academy and CumnockAcademy School Link Programme.
KeithBram
e
John Muir Trust Journal 11
joining the seals for lunch and we agree to perhaps take
afternoon tea in the icehouse instead. And so we pick our
way across a stream and find the footpath through the
woods for the next stage of our journey.
Franny leaps ahead, skipping and dancing her way
through the sunlit tunnel of overhanging rowans and
silver birches, stopping only to collect treasures or to
balance her way over the rivulets that cross our path. It is
only a few hundred yards long, this part of the walk, but
THE FADING, LICHEN-COVERED, and it must be said
half-hearted ‘No Unauthorised Access’ sign nailed to the
gate was begging us to ignore it… so we did. ‘What does
“un-otherised” mean?’ asks my companion, a voracious
reader. A good question. I will never lose my fear of
involuntary trespass so I walk briskly but I suspect
guiltily until we are round the first corner and out of
sight of both the road and the ‘big house’. My
companion is eight year old Franny and she has no such
anxieties. We are off to see the seals at Whiten Head and
she has packed her new and ‘to be grown into’ rucksack
with seal-spotting equipment. This consists of her small
but effective binoculars, a bottle of Lucozade, four egg
and tomato sandwiches, a Cadbury’s creme egg, an
apple, twelve (counted by her mother) Pringles and her
doll Kirsty, also eight but less intact. Other than a Kirsty
and some water for health my own pack is worryingly
similar.
We stride on, River Hope surging seawards on our left.
We are on a land-rover track. Franny leaps down to the
river’s edge to measure herself against the salmon
fishers’ rod stand, and then darts along their narrow
path, as swift and colourful as a kingfisher in her multi-
striped scarf. She has already covered twice as much
ground as I. The track rises and falls and the river opens
its arms to embrace the sea. Ahead of us the incoming
tide from the Arctic collides with the unstoppable river
in an orchestral clash of cymbals, throwing shimmering
rainbow sprays up into the icy blues of the skies and seas.
And Hope springs eternal.
It is nearly time to leave the land-rover track which is
now doubling back on itself in the interests of fishing
but not before we reach the ice house that pokes its head
out of the hillside. Franny races inside fearlessly, Kirsty
peeping anxiously from a side pocket of the rucksack,
and I hover at the entrance, already smelling dampness
and decomposing animal matter and wondering how
many diseases a child can catch simultaneously. ‘It’s cool!
Can we have our picnic here?’ I remind her that we are
it is a magical and secret world, the sea is sparkling mica
glimpsed through the golden and ruby autumn
colours, the rush of the river and the roar of the tide.
Too soon we emerge again into waist-high bracken,
head-high if you are eight, and after acknowledging the
bothy at Inverhope we edge down a steep sheep-track to
the shore. From here I can see the line of our next route
at the end of the beach heading back uphill and
tempting as it is to simply sit down on a huge bleached
beached log to watch the oyster-catchers and gulls
scuttling backwards and forwards on the sand we have
seals to meet. Franny, who has mercifully not yet
attended a time-management seminar sits anyway and
tugs her binoculars from her pack. ‘Look! Look, see the
penguins!’ I look, already knowing that life has few such
‘The Explorer’s Guide to Geodha Meiril’ won second place in the ‘Wild Journeys Wild Places’ writing competition held bythe Trust as part of the Fort William Mountain Festival 2007. For the 2008 competition, see the News pages. Alison Napier lives in Sutherland.
Continued over
THE EXPLORER’S GUIDE
TO GEODHA MEIRILby ALISON NAPIER
Whiten Head in Sutherland seen across the mouth of Loch Eriboll.
12 John Muir Trust Journal
perfect moments. I explain reluctantly that
the penguins perched like gowned
pedagogues on a rocky outcrop are in fact
cormorants but that they are surely related.
We break into the Pringles to celebrate,
ceremonially leaving one (of mine) as an
offering. Simple rituals such as this my
atheism leaves mercifully unchallenged.
After many minutes we set off again, and
at the end of the beach I locate our next
path, barely worthy of the name, a parting of
the heather, a dark, springy route that
climbs high above the beach and leads us to
the seals. Far far ahead I can see Whiten
Head, many miles beyond our destination
today. Contentment today will be following
this tentative little track as it climbs and
dips, vanishes on a vast expanse of rock and
reappears in the distance, worn down like
cathedral steps by two centuries of cheviots
BERGHAUS
and the boots of intrepid seal spotters.
Suddenly I hear them, those eerily
mournful yet magnificent moans and
callings, echoing and re-echoing around
their vaulted chamber, an unworldly sound
that ricochets and reverberates down
through the ages while tugging us forward
like the lure of the sirens. We are utterly
alone in this landscape of empty moors and
pounding seas, and the sound of the seals
mingles with the crashing crescendo of the
waves against the rocks beneath us. ‘Are we
there?’ whispers my companion, still and
watchful now. I take her hand and we creep
along the thin path until it widens into a
natural peat-covered ledge high high above
the tiny bay. Silently, holding our breath, we
find our binoculars and scan the world
below. Dozens of grey seals, females and
pups, flopped on the shingle, nestled up
against the cliff, or sheltering at the
entrances to miniature caves, are spread out
a hundred feet below us. Others, perhaps the
males, are resting on the off-shore rocks and
being washed by the tide. I have visited this
spot many autumns in succession and it
never loses its mystery. To have stumbled
upon a lost civilisation would not inspire
greater awe. And the seals call and the gulls
circle, we are border-dwellers between land
and sea, and Franny simply gazes and gazes
in wonder.
We stayed for almost an hour, though
many more would have passed unnoticed,
and we ate our lunch. We spoke in whispers
and often did not watch the bay at all, instead
lying back in the deep heather, arms and legs
outstretched like two St Andrew’s Crosses.
We moulded into the soft peaty ground and
the heather wrapped us in its rough tweedy
blanket. We stared up at the clouds as they
drifted by, cumuli the shapes of seals and
sailors and ships, of rocks and waves and
caves, drifting wisps of weed and weather.
There is no offering magnificent enough
for this occasion I think but as if reading my
thoughts my companion asks if she can leave
her apple core. For the seals and the clouds
and the cormorants. Of course, I reply, of
course.
I would leave them my world and
everything I own and it would never be
enough.
Continued from page 11
Rob Bushby, manager of the John Muir Award, outlines the journey so far ofthe Trust’s main educational initiative.
John Muir Trust Journal 13
THE JOHN MUIR AWARD was officially launched
in 1997 But its origins lie in the discussions of the
John Muir Trust’s education committee in 1994.
‘Shouldn’t more people be actively doing something
for wild places?’ ran their thinking. ‘And shouldn’t
the Trust be trying to get more young people
engaged in what John Muir was driving at?’
The challenge was clearly identified:
‘If conservation is to compete in the ‘marketplace of
awareness’ with all the other issues fighting for
people’s attention, then it has to achieve a national
profile and high status, rather than remaining a
rather specialised hobby and recreational interest for a
small and ageing group of people. The John Muir
Trust believes that a prestigious Environmental Award
Scheme is one way in which conservation awareness
could be developed among a large group of people.’ *
Trust member Graham White and the Trust’s first
education manager Dave Picken produced a
feasibility study that at the time highlighted a very
limited connection between youth and conservation
– fewer than 0.1% of 12–24 year olds in Scotland
were found to be ‘doing something for wild places’.
Confidence and competence were seen as key
barriers – all that green stuff was seen as the
domain of those with fleeces and beards.
So the John Muir Award was created to fill this
gap. The brief was to create a mainstream,
prestigious, accessible way of encouraging large
numbers of people to get involved in a broad
environmental agenda.
Two years of piloting and planning preceded its
official launch by the Minister for the Environment
Lord Lindsay at a ceremony in Dunbar.
How does it work?Four themes or Challenges were identified that
reflected John Muir’s life and represent the structure
of a holistic experience – Discover, Explore,
Conserve, Share. To achieve a John Muir Award
what’s required is a range of activity that meets
these challenges.
One of the strengths that users identify is the
flexibility of this approach – we aren’t overtly
prescriptive about the activity that’s proposed, other
than asking for a minimum time commitment. This
also makes the Award accessible to a wide variety of
groups, individuals and locations – wild places can
be school grounds, gardens, country parks or more
remote mountain ranges.
Often, groups will use this framework as a
starting point for planning a programme or journey
– staff, leaders, teachers, instructors and volunteers
are a key audience for the John Muir Award, as well
as individual participants. Alternatively an
established programme will use this structure to
add focus, context or activity in order to meet John
Muir Award Challenges and to meet their own aims.
Who are we working with?We pride ourselves on the diversity of organisations
and individuals that choose to participate. Over
1000 organisations have been involved – schools,
The original aims
*The John Muir Award should be:
l Non-competitive
l National within the UK
l Designed and delivered in partnershipwith a wide variety of other agencies
l Based on a common environmentalagenda negotiated with other agencies
l Open and welcoming to all peopleregardless of age, sex, race and class
l Holistic: deliverable through the artsas well as the sciences
l Progressive and challenging
l Prestigious and high profile
JOHN MUIR AWARD – 10TH BIRTHDAY
ranger services, youth groups, outdoor education
centres, homeless charities, 65+ groups, expedition
groups and families.
The Award is open to all . Some 25% of
participants come from socially excluded
backgrounds, and the Award’s record of involving
people from all walks of life is a real asset to the
Trust.
Key partnerships have enabled focused work in
Cumbria, Cairngorms and East Lothian. Cumbria
Youth Alliance has hosted a John Muir Award team
since 2003; support is in place from Friends of the
Lake District, Lake District National Park Authority,
‘V’ Funding and Northern Rock Foundation until
2009. Cairngorms National Park Authority employ
an Award Manager to help meet Park aims and have
committed to this until 2010. A 10-year youthwork-
focused partnership with the Rank Foundation and
East Lothian Council recently came to an end.
THE FIRST TEN YEARS
Clockwise from L: Lord Lindsay andcompanions on Dunbar beach after theAward was launched; the first John MuirAwards in Northern Ireland were gained byyoung people from Beechmount in BelfastUlster Wildlife Trust; the Zawinski family, doingthe Award and Journey for the Wild; Awardparticipant on Greenteam work party,Oakbank, W Lothian Keith Brame.
*John Muir Award Feasibility Study 1995.
Continued over
WHO DOES IT?Award facts & figures
Age Under 10 10%10–11 4012–16 3017–24 10Over 25 10
Gender Male 53%Female 47
Place Scotland 26,000 England 12,500Wales 11,000Other 1500
Total 51,000
Diversity…
During a single year John Muir Awards wereachieved by:
a Ram, Lamb, and Bullock;a Hunter, Fisher, Shepherd, Horseman,Stalker, Ranger, Farmer, Shearera Walker and a Gardener (in Fairweather);a Crane, Woodcock, Piper, Harrier,Gosling, Peacock, Falconer, Swan,Bunting, Martin, Heron, and Ducky;England, Wales, the Welsh and a Scott…and a John Muir.
The numbersAwards attained plotted against staffnumbers, 1996–2007, below.
14 John Muir Trust Journal
108642
16
12
8
4
0
Awards (ʼ000)Staff
96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
How does the Award fit in withthe wider work of the Trust?Whilst the purchase and management of iconic
wild land has always been seen as the John Muir
Trust’s core business, the Award has helped the
Trust to become known more widely, to be seen as
actively engaging with a much wider audience, to
help it to counter the potential charge of being an
elitist landowner, and to add a youthful vigour to
its portfolio of activity. It involves the Trust in the
direct engagement of thousands of people per year
in biodiversity awareness and responsible access.
As its key education initiative, the John Muir
Award directly relates to the Trust’s Articles of
Association, in particular:
l Conserving wild places and their landscapes,
both for their own sake and for the sustenance
and inspiration they give to humanity
l Promoting an awareness and understanding of
wild places for their own sake and for their value
to the benefit of humanity
l Working with local communities and
encouraging them to live in harmony with wild
places
l Stimulating public support to help protect wild
places
l Encouraging voluntary participation in the
conservation and renewal of wild places.
People first/nature first: the continuing challengeThe challenge identified in 1994 is still there. The
message from Scottish Government in 2007 is
remarkably similar to the one identified by the
Trust in 1994:
After years of dedicated resource, expertise and
commitment from government, local authorities,
non-governmental organisations, charities, trusts
and schools, many people in Scotland remain
distant from the pressing issues faced by nature
and wildlife. Communications have tended
towards the hard, scientific facts [nature first]
rather than exploring and exploiting the broad
motivations of the general public [people first]. As
a consequence they have tended to attract a fairly
specific group of people naturally drawn to the
issues that biodiversity raises. Though this base is
highly committed, it is not large or focussed
enough to spur a mass behavioural change that
sees more ordinary people ‘out there’ doing
something about biodiversity issues.*
Then as now, the John Muir Trust is one of the
few national organisations actively working with
individuals and organisations across the spectrum
of society to explicitly promote the value of wild
places.
JOHN MUIR AWARD – 10TH BIRTHDAY
MILESTONES
Pre-history (1995–1997)
April 1995 Feasibility Study.Award piloted with Venture Scotland, Dukeof Edinburgh’s Award Edinburgh &Lothians, Highland Ecology Centre, TheGreen Team, East Lothian Council, NorthLanarkshire Council.
October 1995 First John Muir Awards presentedto Venture Scotland.
1996 Activities Programme launched.First training event.212 Awards presented.
Official history (1997 on)
1997 Official launch.Funding from Rank Foundation for ‘Youthor Adult’ worker in East Lothian.
1998 758 Awards presented this year.
1999 51 organisations using the Award.
2000 First Lifetime Achievement Awardpresented to broadcaster and champion forwild places Tom Weir.
2001 Two regional managers for Scotlandappointed.
2002 Fifth birthday celebration at Holyrood,Edinburgh 7000th Award presented by mountaineerDoug Scott.Manager appointed to run Award in Wales.
2003 Partnership with Cumbria Youth Alliance. Cairngorms National Park Authorityemploy Award manager.Study: 90% of Award providers agree thatinvolvement raised awareness of John Muir.
2004 First UK-wide networking events –Gatherings – held in six locations.Cairngorms conservation guru AdamWatson presented with LifetimeAchievement Award.Publicity DVD produced.
2005 Scottish Education Minister Peter Peacockpresents 20,000th John Muir Award toRosie Maddock of Kellands School, Iverurie
2006 Doug Scott, first Briton to summit Everestand founder of Community Action Nepal,receives Lifetime Achievement Award.Over 50 John Muir Award groupsparticipate in the John Muir Trust Journeyfor the Wild.
2007 50,000th John Muir Award presented and10,000th John Muir Award presented inWales.Welsh language/bilingual materialsproduced. * Scottish Biodiversity Communications Strategy
Framework. A Report to the Scottish Executive andScottish Natural Heritage by Newhaven Communications2007.
Continued from page 13
Tom Weir, Adam Watson, Doug Scott:accepted the Trust’s LifetimeAchievement Award.
John Muir Trust Journal 15
RD – 10TH BIRTHDAY
Most people who know even a little about the
Cairngorms would readily agree that it is a special
place. Around this ancient mountain core lie large
tracts of native woodland, unpolluted lochs and
burns, moorland and low intensity farmland. As one
visitor put it, ‘you’re looking at a 7000-year love
affair between a people and the land’.
Given five minutes with anyone, I could convince
them of the area’s special qualities. But, when it
came to sharing my passion for the area with my
children I lacked confidence. Sad to admit it but I
felt that I needed props, a toolkit, a framework,
something more than ‘dad just going on about
glaciers again.’ I wanted something that would allow
my children to discover for themselves what is so
special about the Cairngorms. That’s why as a family
we decided to do the John Muir Award and focus
our activity around the place in which we are so
lucky to live.
When we started Joanna was four years old and
Rachel was seven so enjoyment needed to be high
on the agenda. With that in mind we planned a
series of half day journeys exploring habitats of the
Cairngorms, and to introduce some wildness into
our own garden by planting native trees and an area
of meadow.
These activities covered the discover, explore and
conserve elements of the Award and we planned to
share our experiences by writing diaries, drawing
pictures and taking photographs that would
eventually make a poster.
We mapped out the four days required activity
but little did we know that our Award would last the
whole summer and take us way beyond the
Cairngorms to the summit of Clisham on Harris
and the length of the Western Isles. John Muir
started to crop up in almost everything we did last
summer.
Water30th April. We canoed from Broomhill to
Grantown. Rachel’s diary reads, ‘At the beginning I
felt excited because I knew it was going to be really
exciting. At the snack spot I felt hungry but not for
long yum yum!’ Enjoyment and enjoyment of food
were to become recurring themes. Jo remembered
seeing sand martens, oyster catchers, herons and
ducks of an unspecified species.
In September we returned to the Spey to canoe
from Grantown to Cromdale and the hot summer
provided several opportunities to immerse
ourselves in the crystal clear waters of the Nethy,
Feshie and Tilt. My lasting memory of the summer
is of Rachel lying on her back in the Feshie like
Baloo the Bear with not a care in the world.
Mountains and moorland6th May 2006. The weather forecast was good so we
set out to climb Meall a’ Buachaille. Rachel’s diary
records that it was a hard climb and the total
journey took us three hours and ten minutes
mainly because ‘I ran like a gazelle back down to
the car’. Food also features significantly: ‘While we
were looking over the Cairngorms mum and dad
showed me the ridges and corries and told me how
they were formed by ice but I thought they looked
like big ice cream scoops.’
One evening later that month we visited the
Roche Moutonnee at Dulnain Bridge and ran over
the exposed granite playing at being glaciers
scouring the rocks. We also walked into Coire an t-
Sneachda to get up close to those ‘ice scream
scoops’. My lasting memory of that day was Rachel
asking if she could drink water from the burn and
then declaring, ‘wow, better than anything you get
from a tap’. But this was meant to be a mountain
day, not water: things were starting to get
connected.
We talked about John Muir, his life and works,
and most importantly we mentioned that he had
found that when he looked at anyone thing in
nature he kept finding that it was connected to
everything else.
I wasn’t at all sure how much of this the girls
understood or whether they found it interesting. In
late June, on our summer holiday, while descending
Clisham on Harris I came upon the most massive
piece of shed wool. I instantly fashioned a huge
white beard and held it to my face and asked, ‘who
am I? ‘John Muir’, they both replied and proceeded
to tell me in the ways of a four and seven year old
why his ideas were important.
Farmland and forestWe cycled from home along quiet roads and farm
tracks into Abernethy Forest on a journey that has
since become know as the ‘three burns route’
because it involves three such crossings. It is easy to
be impressed by the majestic ancient pines older
than granny, seedlings long before the first motor
car was invented. When you’re four and seven the
best way to get to know an ancient pine tree is to
climb it and that’s exactly what they did.
We planted meadow seed in our back garden,
two birch trees and put up a bird table. We made
stone and wood piles to attract insects. To my
amazement these were far more effective than I had
ever thought possible and in the space of a month
we tripled the number of bird species coming into
the garden. On Lewis and North Uist we discovered
that there is no better place than wandering
through the flowering machair to experience the
richness and diversity of meadow lands.
The everythingness of it allThere were a couple of occasions last summer that
provided real insights into a deeper understanding.
On a car journey over the Lecht Rachel asked why
couldn’t more trees be allowed to grow by simply
fencing the deer out of the uplands. So I talked
about the jobs that stalking provides, the cost of
fencing and the damage that fencing can do to
Capercaille. She thought for a while and declared,
‘it is complicated isn’t it’.
In an old text book not opened since my
university days, I found a classic photograph of
moorland leading into mountain interspersed with
forest and farmland and a river. I showed the girls
the photograph, read, ‘for effective conservation the
ideal pattern is a balanced mixture of different uses’
and said, ‘there is nowhere better in Britain to see
that diversity than the Cairngorms’. The girls simply
responded, ‘so you have been telling us the truth!’
The John Muir Trust owns no land in the
Cairngorms and yet by doing the Award I feel that
my children are far better connected to the aims of
the Trust than they would have been by visiting any
Trust property. The Award enabled our children to
discover their land in new ways that mean
something to them. If we want to win hearts and
minds and encourage a new generation of young
people to love wild land then we should continue to
promote and develop the John Muir Award.
l This year, 1550 people have completed a John
Muir Award in the Cairngorms National Park.
Pete Crane is Visitor
Services Manager
for the Cairngorms
National Park.
FAMILY AWARDThe Crane family’s John Muir Award story, by PETE CRANE
JOHN MUIR AWARD – 10TH BIRTHDAY
Issie Inglis, at Lochan Uaine in the Cairngorms. Issie is Director of Wildwalks which offers long term walking projects. Based atGlenmore Lodge, Wildwalks’ main goal is to reach vulnerable, disadvantaged young women. ‘We see the Award as anincredibly important part of the project, not just as an educational tool, but part of social and cultural learning. At first many ofthe women see nothing but their feet and each other. It is important to help them open their eyes.’
Samantha Pettigrew received the50,000th John Muir Award. Sheworked for the Award withBackchat Youth Project fromHelensburgh, in Loch Lomond andthe Trossachs National Park.
Andrew McGovern, clearing fencing and cutting hedges with a teamfrom Bridgend Volunteers, at Woodhall at the Inch nurseries inEdinburgh. ‘Woodhall at the Inch’ is part of Enable Scotland, whichgives people with learning difficulties.conservation skills isuch as treeplanting and care, maintaining footpaths, litter sweeps and drystonedyking. It is based mainly in Craigmillar Castle Park.
Becci Crook, Anna Czemrys, Sarah Taghizadeh, part of of theGreenteam’s work party at Oakbank and Almondell Country Park,West Lothian. Since 1995 over 1000 young people have worked withthe Green Team.
Rhyddian standing on top of his own yurt, which he hopes to use in low impact environmentaleducation projects. He is participant development worker with Venture Scotland, and is basing hisown John Muir Conserver Award on Venture Scotland work in Glen Etive.
Behind the lens
Photographer Keith Brame
‘Snapshot’ is intended to provide a photographic flavour ofthe work of the Award.
Ten years and 50,000 John Muir Award certificates – thatseems like something to celebrate!
I have been photographing a few of the people behind theimpressive sounding statistic – just a few of those who havebeen discovering, exploring, conserving and sharing theirown wild places. They have taken a a little time out fromtheir activities to be photographed in their chosenenvironment.
Quoting from John Muir is a rewarding activity, but as I am aphotographer I would like to pick a couple of quotes froman equally nourishing source, Henri Cartier-Bresson:
In a portrait, I am looking for the silence in somebody.
And another, which might ring true for readers of thismagazine:
There is no closed figure in nature. Every shape participateswith another. No one thing is independent of another, andone thing rhymes with another, and light gives them shape.
Doug Scott and Adam Watson, holders of theJohn Muir Trust Lifetime Achievement Award.
RD – 10TH BIRTHDAY
SUMMER 2007 – A SNAPSHOT OF THE JOHN MUIR AWARD by KEITH BRAME
of Wildwalks which offers long term walking projects. Based atdisadvantaged young women. ‘We see the Award as annal tool, but part of social and cultural learning. At first many ofortant to help them open their eyes.’
Team-mates from Venture Scotland’strip to Marthrown of Mabie EducationCentre near Dumfries prepare for theHigh Ropes course. The trip is part ofa training session for volunteers.Venture Scotland has .used the JohnMuir Award from its inception in1995.
Jamie Shearer has been involved with theThe Big Issue Foundation's Artworks projectfor four years, gaining seven DiscoveryAwards in the process. The project workswith people who are either homeless, or atrisk of being homeless. Participants have theopportunity to explore wild places such asGlencoe and the Cairngorms.
A team from Outward Bound Ullswater clearhemlock with the Forestry Commission inWhinlatter forest, Cumbria.
own yurt, which he hopes to use in low impact environmentalant development worker with Venture Scotland, and is basing hisd on Venture Scotland work in Glen Etive.
Del Davies in the former slate workings ofMoel Siabod in North Wales. Del has beenactive with the John Muir Award since its earlydays, introducing it to outdoor centres wherehe worked. Above the slate mine, EvanRoberts, self-taught botanist, climber andconservationist, discovered rare mountainflora.
18 John Muir Trust Journal
John Muir TrustCorporate Members
The JMT was recently introduced to Pandaprint by our
latest employee. Many of our staff enjoy the wildlands of
Scotland and the rest of the UK. Camping, hiking and
photography are some of the activities we all enjoy and
take for granted. Pandaprint is proud to sponsor an
organisation like the JMT, whose great work will help
conserve our national treasures for generations to come.
James Wilson, Managing Director, Pandaprint
Corporate Membership is vital. It helps us protect wildplaces, increase fauna and flora, run our educational JohnMuir Award and our Activities and ConservationProgrammes. Huge thanks to the members below for theirvalued support.
Gold Corporate Members
Anatom
Berghaus
Enlightenment Media Ltd
First Group
Graham Tiso Limited
Haggis Adventures
Heart of the Lakes
J W Muir Group PLC
Mackie’s of Scotland
Scottish & Newcastle plc
Silver Corporate Members
DMH Baird Lumsden
Bronze Corporate Members
Avendris
Carsten Flieger.Fotografie
Dewar’s World of Whisky
Do Good Advertising
Hay Nisbet Press Ltd
Highland Adventure Safaris
Jane Street Printing Company
Panda Print
Profitmaster Systems Ltd
Great partnerships – Great benefits
All these companies support the Trust through corporatemembership and in return gain valuable promotional benefits.The Trust will tailor its corporate membership packages to suityour company, and we are always open to ideas.Ask your employer to give us the opportunity to explore how wecan work together. We will find the best way for you and yourcompany to benefit in return.Call us on 0131 554 0114, email [email protected] – or visitwww.jmt.org where there are full details of the scheme.
URRAS CEANN A 'TUATH NA HEARADH, the North Harris Trust, has even
more magnificent land than it started with. The 55,000 acres originally in its
guardianship became 62,500 in the spring of 2006, when the Loch Seaforth
Estate, with the townships of Scaladale, Maraig and Reinigeadal, was reunited
with the rest of North Harris.
Despite the immense effort, mostly voluntary, that went into the community
buyouts and has continued every day since then, the NHT is only at the
beginning of a long road. The community has possession of the land; but now
the task is ‘to regain control of the land in a sustainable way’, the NHT chair
Calum Mackay says. Sustainable, that is, in terms of population and economy,
and a secure future for the 700 people who live there, as well as for the natural
heritage.
The Trust took possession of the ‘stone and earth’ of the North Harris Estate
in March 2003. Calum speaks of ‘the powerful attraction of the land itself ’, and
open, responsible access for residents and visitors, and active encouragement of
people to go out on the land has been part of the NHT philosophy from the
beginning. It runs the annual Tiorga Mor hill race over a five mile course above
Amhuinnsuidhe Castle and has also organised walks, though with less takeup.
It takes information and awareness-raising seriously, and publishes
information leaflets and a wonderfully detailed relief map by cartographer
Wendy Price, which you can buy and frame (inside back cover). Visitor numbers
on the hills have grown, especially those in groups. Calum puts this down at
least in part to community ownership, believing that visitors feel more
welcome when they know the land belongs to the people.
A successful hind stalking club helps ‘the sustainable management of the
herd in a sportsmanlike manner’ and offers local enthusiasts stalking
opportunities they would never otherwise have imagined.
The JMT was invited to join the board for the new Trust as a conservation
partner, ready to provide advice and support on environmental management.
‘It was a great privilege’, JMT director Nigel Hawkins said at the time, ‘for us to
be invited to join forces with a community which has shown tremendous
resolve and determination to take responsibility for their land.’
Duncan MacPherson, NHT’s first land manager, started in late 2006 and has
a full programme of work on the ground – joined by JMT’s partnerships
manager Mick Blunt for a monitoring programme (page 20) , and by volunteer
work parties for tasks from planting trees in remote Glen Langadale, one of the
five sites earmarked for forestry, to path repairs and beach cleans. The estate’s
network of paths – a mix of stalkers’ paths and old through routes from before
the motor age – is an important part of the heritage in its own right. Most are
REGENERATION ROADNorth Harris Trust
Clockwise from above: a walk over Clisham, winter day at Ardhasaig inHarris, yellow flag.
Anke Addy
John Muir Trust Journal 19
The JMT works with community
based trusts in Harris and Lewis.
In these pages, we look at North
Harris Trust and Galson Estate
Trust, and ask some of the people
living there to write on their work,
their concerns, and their delight at
being there.
North Harris Trust,The Old Hostel,Tarbert, Isle of Harris,HS3 3BG.01859 502222,[email protected] (‘friends’) isproduced twice a yearfor the Friends ofNorth Harris, whichwas set up to linkpeople who live thereand those with aninterest in the area.
in good shape and they all help to make the
remoter parts of North Harris surprisingly
accessible.
If the tracks are basically OK, the economy
basically isn’t. ‘The former pattern of crofting
was sustainable’, Calum says, ‘–we know that
from the many years it lasted. But the way that
crofting was, has gone.’ There are fewer active
people on the crofts, and their age profile isn’t
encouraging.
The new farming support regime, no longer
based on subsidised production, is bringing in
20 years of change. The idea of stewardship is
accepted, but it sits uneasily with some of the
market-led approaches that government is
pushing at the same time. The Trust ‘needs to
find a new way to keep people here and make
life on the croft worthwhile.’ Something that
produces year round income. Visitors are far
from doing this. Though the season has got
longer, no business is seriously busy for more
than half the year. But the wind blows all the
year, and the NHT wants to develop a three-
turbine installation at Monan, above the old
whaling station and near the road from Tarbert
to Stornoway. It was, they decided, the only
investment that would yield year-round jobs
and the income stream that the NHT needs.
You can’t overstate what this seemingly
modest scheme means for the NHT. They are
confident its income would give them financial
independence and the ability to spread seed
money into, for example, housing and
apprenticeship schemes.
That might stem the population decline; but
they have mapped out a range of much more
pioneering outcomes. One would see Harris
becoming ‘a leading example of local energy
production and energy saving’ – better than
ROADself-sufficient in energy, highly efficient and
innovative. In another outcome, North Harris
would channel investment into its heritage: the
landscapes, paths, conservation sites,
archaeology. By researching, restoring,
explaining and generally promoting its assets
they would become ‘a symbol of the
regeneration of Harris’.
Ambitious? They probably need to be,
because the depopulation clock is ticking, as
seen in primary school rolls. Time presses. In
the summer the NHT was disappointed to
learn that its turbine development had been
called in for a (probably lengthy) planning
inquiry; but as we went to press there was
relief: the inquiry threat was lifted.
The John Muir Trust has supported the
scheme as a community-scale project with a
tolerable effect on the views. It continues to
support it now.
Anke Addy
Calum
J Mackay
20 John Muir Trust Journal
Stuck in the Muck with Mick Blunt
FRONT CRAWL OR BACKSTROKE? The question
flashed into my mind as I sank rapidly into the
peaty gloop that I had foolishly mistaken for firm,
but damp, ground. As the cold black water slid up
the inside of my waterproof trousers and knocked
alarmingly on the door of my nether regions, I
rapidly racked my memory for what the grizzled
author of my pocket SAS Survival Guide would do.
I knew backstroke was the style of choice if you
parachute into quicksand, but would he opt for an
athletic and determined spot of front crawl to get
out of a peaty swamp?
Being in the JMT, and not the SAS, I opted for
the time honoured technique of yelling in alarm,
followed by graceless and unco-ordinated flailing of
my arms, which seemed to do the trick.
Duncan MacPherson, Land Manager with the
North Harris Trust – and a long standing JMT
member too – looked admiringly at the appalling
stinky filth that now encased my trousers, before
kindly pointing out a somewhat drier route that
would take us out of the boggy glen of Abhainn
Mhòr Ceann Reasort, and up to point WH18, one
of 37 small sample points that we need to visit. As a
reward for my attempted bog snorkelling, this turns
out to border a beautiful lochan perched on the
lower slopes of Stulabhal’s north west ridge, right in
the heart of the North Harris hills.
For the past two weeks I have been working with
Duncan, local crofter Murdo MacKay and Scottish
Natural Heritage (SNH) Area Officer Roddy
MacMinn to assess the health of the wet heath in
the North Harris Special Area of Conservation
(SAC). Wet heath, heathery moorland with added
bog, is one of eight habitats in North Harris which
are protected under European Natura legislation,
and until recently it hasn’t been doing too well.
Like many places in the Highlands and Islands,
grazing by large numbers of sheep and red deer has
been taking its toll. However, sheep numbers here
have declined dramatically in the last few years as a
result of CAP changes. A recent count also showed
fewer red deer on the estate. The four of us are
trying to discover if this reduction in grazing
animals is benefiting the SAC’s habitats.
It’s interesting, and sometimes challenging work.
The points are randomly selected; some are easy to
get to, others involve a walk of several hours across
remote and boggy mountain terrain. Having
random points is important, as it ensures we have a
representative snap shot of the wet heath
throughout the SAC – not just in the areas that are
easily accessible. After all, if they are easy for us to
reach, they are also easy for the sheep and deer.
Surveying in late summer brings its own hazards
on warm, muggy, overcast days. Our surveying
technique, which involves crouching down and
closely inspecting the heather and other plants
within each sample plot, has to be cunningly
modified on days like this, in order to stay one step
ahead of the monster Hebridean midges. We’ve
become quite adept at surveying vegetation whilst
walking constantly around the pole, which we use
to mark the centre of each 4m square study point.
The only way to study the heather on days like this
is to grab handfuls in mid-stride and check each
leading shoot, all the while marching dementedly
back and forth like someone who has just downed
twenty espressos.
Involving communities in detailed monitoring of
their land is a new approach, and has only been
possible because of close co-operation between the
John Muir Trust, the North Harris Trust and SNH.
Instead of the occasional visit by outside experts to
assess whether or not important habitats are in
‘favourable condition’ (as the conservation jargon
puts it), here in North Harris the local community
is now learning to check the condition of their
habitats for themselves.
Over the next five years we will be carrying out
repeat studies of the wet heath, and also extending
the project to include alpine grasslands – important
areas of low growing herbs and grasses found on
the summit ridges. The information we gather will
give us unprecedented understanding of the effects
of grazing on the SAC, and help the North Harris
Trust to fulfil one of their key objectives – ‘to keep
North Harris wild and beautiful’.
l Mick Blunt is a partnerships manager for the John
Muir Trust. He lives on Lewis.
A Big Day withDuncan MacPherson‘WELL, THAT’S THE END of my Munro-bagging
then’ I thought on taking up employment in Harris
seven years ago. I am glad to say that it wasn’t, and
that I have discovered a huge range of walking
opportunities in one of our biggest areas of wild land.
A number of fantastic ridge walks match many better
known areas and produce stunning vistas taking in
Lewis, the Uists, St Kilda, Skye and the northwest
mainland. As an added bonus, apart from an outing
on An Cliseam (2622ft, 799m) you are not likely to
meet another soul all day.
Getting to summits and striding along ridges is my
forte. However a quite different experience is one of
my strongest memories. The Saturday morning in June
was damp and instead of heading to the hill early my
wife and I hung around to see what the weather would
do. As the cloud cleared we made a snap decision to
do something different and head for Kinloch Resort,
an abandoned settlement at the very edge of North
Harris Trust land and about as remote as it gets, eight
miles from the public road. Within minutes we were
on the path from Bogha Glas on Loch Seaforth,
heading west into the hills. At one time many people
would have walked this route to travel to the Uig area
of Lewis as part of daily life, and the path they have
left us is a great inheritance.
The track rises steadily to a height of 650ft at
Bealach na h-Uamha. As we approached the bealach a
lumbering giant of a bird looking far too big for the
landscape flew into view. The flash of white confirmed
him to be a sea eagle. Marvelling at the sight we
descended into Glen Langadale and then climbed a
series of switchbacks to a bealach just over 1000ft. The
track continues west but we headed due north to the
nearby summit of An Rapaire across the boundary
into Lewis. From here a panorama unfolded, including
the 7-mile length of Loch Langabhat stretching up
Eric Meadow
s
Duncan MacPherson on monitoringwork; the rock prow of SronUlladal.
John Muir Trust Journal 21
Rhodri Evans’ trackrecordIF I HAD TO SUM UP the Outer Hebrides in one
word it would be ‘wild’! The weather certainly
qualifies, and the landscape is partly mountainous
with vast tracts of moorland and many miles of
unspoilt beaches.
But this is not an empty wilderness! People live
and work here as they have done for centuries and
there are vibrant communities with strong cultural
beliefs, musical and literary traditions. There has
always been an unwritten understanding of open
access among crofters and landowners here, so the
implementation of the Land Reform (Scotland)
Act, which has made such a difference to access in
other areas, really only meant ‘business as usual’ for
most of the Isles. This also means that conflict
between land managers and users of access is
infrequent, though there will always be one or two
who resent people stravaiging on their land. At that
point it’s my job to intervene and try to find a
compromise, which usually works – in the end.
Though we don’t suffer the same pressures as
the most popular upland areas, nevertheless tracks
do get eroded and can rapidly turn into quagmires.
A ‘stitch in time’ can frequently save nine, so work
is currently being undertaken to improve a number
of access routes throughout the outer Hebrides.
The Western Isles Countryside Access
Programme (WICAP) was established in 2004 to
upgrade about 200 km of paths throughout the
Isles. It’s led by Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar and
jointly funded by Scottish Natural Heritage,
Western Isles Enterprise and the council, and with
European funding via the Highlands and Islands
Special Transitional Programme.
The paths being upgraded range from mountain
routes to shorter ways around settlements and
through the flat machair land. The work will
improve path quality and enhance the enjoyment
of residents and visitors alike. Many of these routes
will undoubtedly become Core Paths in due course
and add to the variety of routes available.
To illustrate the kinds of projects that we have
been working on I asked Susan Rabe, WICAP Project
Officer, to pick a couple of examples.
n The first is a walk that has been developed over
an area of rough grazing and forestry to the North
West of Loch Ulapuil in Lewis. The project has
opened up the moorland to enable people of all
abilities to enjoy a tranquil area with stunning
views of the hills and lochs of Harris to the South.
The walk, just off the A859 road, meanders
through a woodland plantation and spurs off the
main walkway lead to viewpoints, one overlooking
a stand of pines where herons roost.
Wildlife watchers are in for a treat as the
woodland/moorland habitat attracts species like
the wren, skylark and golden plover. If you can sit
through Lewis, the overhanging cliff of Sron Ulladal
and the hills of Uig.
Our destination of Kinloch Resort was low, but we
had that familiar summit experience of finding that
others had got there before us. Three crofters from Uig
had come the same way as ourselves in order to
experience this place of which they had only heard
until now. Neither they nor we were disappointed. A
scatter of ruins and a couple of watchers’ cottages lay
either side of the two salmon rivers that met at the
head of the bay. A solitary tree grew in a stackyard; the
moor rose gently to the south and west until the hills
thrust out of it to dominate the scene. Most impressive
of all the rock prow of Sron Ulladal looked as if it
would sail into port alongside us in a few minutes.
Apart from ourselves the place was very still. What
would have been going on here 150 years ago? What
did the residents think when a sea eagle flew overhead?
Day trippers cannot stay long here so we set off on
our return. Taking a slightly different route we
followed the Abhainn Mhor Ceann Resort, and then
the Abhainn a’ Chlair Bhig along the Lewis-Harris
boundary. We stepped further back in time as we came
across two beehive dwellings, one of them almost
perfectly intact. We stopped to contemplate what it
was like living here in the original template for
sustainable housing. Onwards we climbed, more
slowly now as our legs tired and almost stepping on a
young deer calf asleep in the heather. It awoke with a
fright on hearing my voice, leapt to its feet and soon
ran 100 yards as we spotted its mother looking down
with concern from above. We stopped briefly at Loch
Chleistir on our way to the bealach between An
Rapaire and Stulabhal once more. The summit of
Stulabhal (1900ft, 579m) offers some of the best views
in Harris but there was no question of climbing it
today. Instead we headed back down the zigzag track,
enjoying the evening sun on Mullach an Langa and
Teilesbhal. A final climb back out of the glen and the
gentle descent back to the shores of Loch Seaforth left
us weary but content, as any good hill day should.
The following day as we were enjoying the quiet of
the Harris Sabbath we were alerted to a fracas out in
the bay. No more than 200 yards from our house the
sea eagle was attacking a group of geese in the water.
Slow, rhythmic wing beats kept him aloft while he
looked for an opportunity to pounce. The honking of
the adult geese was not enough to distract him as he
dipped into the water and lifted a gosling clear in his
talons. As he turned to leave victorious one of the
geese rapidly drew its head back and fired it like a
harpoon into the sea eagle’s underbelly. Stunned by
the counter-attack he dropped the gosling back into
the water and retreated bruised and empty handed.
Sometimes the wild heads straight to you.
l Duncan MacPherson is land manager for the North
Harris Trust.
quietly for a while you may spot an otter fishing in
Allt Loch na Criadh or catch a glimpse of a
peregrine falcon hunting in the skies above
Meannan Mor.
n The second example is much wilder in character.
The tiny village of Reinigeadal in North Harris was
only accessible by sea or on foot by a rough upland
path until the late 1980s when an asphalt road
connected it to the rest of Harris.
The historic path between Reinigeadal and
Urgha, East of Tarbert, is now one of Harris’ most
popular routes for mountain bikers and walkers,
many of whom stay at the Gatliff Trust Hostel at
Reinigeadal. The track often features in the annual
Hebridean Challenge endurance race.
A beautifully hand-crafted path over challenging
moorland and coastal terrain, it was probably built
over a number of years during the 19th century. It
crawls through the mountain beauty of North
Harris, rising from the Tarbert-Scalpay road, over
the bealach between Trollamul and Beinn Tarsuinn
at 280 m above sea level, then plunging 170 m
down the Sgrìob (meaning to scrape, drag) into the
bay of Loch Trollamaraig. Often the only company
here is that of the ‘blue men’ of the Minch – the
seals that shelter in the bay.
In 2006 the footpath was surveyed in detail and
damaged areas requiring urgent attention were
identified. Traditional stone construction
techniques are being used in repairs. Collapsed
culverts, cross drains, water bars, revetments and
stone pitching features are being rebuilt, while hand
drainage and light touch landscaping will ensure
minimal impact to the sensitive site and environs.
If you are looking to walk all day and often see
no one else (even in the height of summer!) and if
you have an interest in upland and moorland flora
and fauna then visit this largely unspoilt area.
l Rhodhri Evans is Countryside Access manager for
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles
Council).
Evening boat to Tarbert from the Reinigeadaltrack above Urgha.
22 John Muir Trust Journal
Galson Estate Trust
THINK OF NORTH LEWIS and you may imagine miles and
miles of low, drab moorland. The area in fact has plenty of scenic
diversity, and on a sunny day vivid colours too: its dynamic
Atlantic coastline has dark cliffs, rocky shores, shingle and
gleaming sands; along the road, the white houses of its 22
townships stand out from the green of the machair and
grassland; the rolling miles of peatlands are certainly vast, but
they are not trackless and are rich in human and natural
heritage.
Agnes Rennie believes the rural economy, and therefore the
landscape, are at a crossroads because of changes in the support
systems for crofting, market forces and the effect this has on
stock rearing. ‘The challenge’ she says, ‘is to maintain the link
with the land and do something worthwhile with the crofts.
People are grappling with how to manage the land so it isn’t
abandoned on the pretext of becoming a wilderness – something
very different from a landscape managed for its biodiversity’. The
trust has a vision of what the future landscape might be; one that
Agnes summed up as: ‘The land looking managed and cared for;
stock around – and also corncrakes and peewits and skylarks and
bonxies and eagles’. The best chance of a good outcome is if
everyone works together and the Trust is beginning to build good
relations with the township grazings committees.
The buyout was prepared during a wave of renewable energy
schemes in the highlands and islands, and the new trust inherited
the lease granted by the previous owner to Lewis Windpower Ltd
for part of Europe’s largest wind farm, 181 giant turbines with a
blade-top height of 140 m.
The coincidence of this windpower project, Agnes says, gave
people the wrong impression of the whole venture. The buyout
did not hang on revenues from the developers; it was simply ‘the
right thing to do at the time’. Agnes puts her own concerns about
the Lewis Windpower scheme down as ‘the numbers, the scale,
questionable economic and environmental returns… and the
tearing up of the moor’. Galson Estate Trust plans its own
community-scale farm of up to three turbines and believes it can
make a real contribution to the local economy.
Large windfarms are not planned only for Galson or for North
Lewis: the latest application, at Pairc in the quiet south east of the
island, opens the cumulative prospect of a 40-mile chain of
turbines, visible from all over Lewis. Three major windfarms are
being opposed by the John Muir Trust, but the JMT is actively
supporting smaller community schemes, such as those being put
forward in Galson and North Harris.
For all its acres Galson Estate Trust has just one employee: not
a land manager, or a factor, or a surveyor, but a countryside
ranger. ‘It’s no accident that we took on a ranger first’, says Agnes.
‘We did it to help us engage, and build relationships. Twenty
years ago, relationships between crofters and conservation bodies
were terrible; no-one would have dreamed a ranger would be a
first hire for a community trust!’
Relationships – bridge-building – promoting a part of the
Western Isles that has been ‘left out a bit’ – these are the core of
what ranger Julie Sievewright does. She’s based at Habost in Ness,
a few miles from Butt of Lewis, and just along the road from
Comunn Eachdraidh Nis (Ness Historical Society). The only
countryside ranger in the Western Isles, she promotes the natural
heritage of the area at all sorts of local venues and events, from a
school biodiversity week to guided walks, a carnival and an
historical exhibition. With a background working with visitors to
Scotland, she also has her eyes on the coachloads from cruise
ships putting in at Stornoway. Visitors who make it to North
Lewis often just go to the lighthouse at Butt of Lewis and head
back. Julie would like them to see, and understand, more of its
riches, and is working with the Western Isles Tour Guides
Association to help that happen.
Galson Estate has its share of national designations for scenery
and wildlife, and its own local nature reserve at Loch Stiapabhat
in Ness, a trough of land that may have been used to take ships
between the west and east coasts. Julie posts wildlife sightings
and the progress of the seasons in an ‘Urras Ranger’ blog, and is
bringing out a leaflet on the natural and cultural heritage with
JMT partnerships manager Mick Blunt.
Galson’s human heritage is all around you. Almost all of the
moor is common grazings; it’s a cultural as well as a physical
landscape whose features are now being written down and
digitised. There are 5000 years of history being investigated, and
Julie keeps in touch with archaeological teams. Knowledge
emerges about monoliths, Viking cemeteries revealed by the
advancing sea, churches and cells, the buildings of the governors
of Ness; it all enables people – as one historian put it – to feel ‘at
the centre of their own world, rather than at the very periphery
of someone else’s’.
Latha Mòr Ghabhsainn, Galson’s Great Day, came on 12 January this year, when the Galson Estate
Trust achieved community ownership of the estate’s 55,000 acres, the greater part of North Lewis.
We spoke to Agnes Rennie, vice-chair of the trust, and to countryside ranger Julie Sievewright.
Urras OighreachdGhabhsainn,(Galson EstateTrust)Buth Lisa,Habost, Ness,Isle of LewisHS2 0TG.01851 810 [email protected].
Photos from top(background)shieling remainson the moor;Clach an Truiseil,the tallest standingstone in Scotlandat almost 6m high;Julie Sievewright;the sands atEoropie in Ness,just south of Buttof Lewis.
THE LINK WITH THE LANDAnne Campbell
John Muir Trust Journal 23
TWO FEATURES DEFINE the island; its
continuous coastline, as it sits out in the ocean, and
its moorland heart. For the many generations who
have lived here, these complementary facets of
Lewis have been essential both to their livelihood
and to their understanding of themselves.
Intertwined with ‘Who are you?’ is ‘Where are you
from?’ So it is for someone like me whose family
roots interlock solely within Lewis’ coastal and
moorland frame.
At one level of perception and language the moor
has always been there, seeming a natural and latent
place. As if it waits to express itself only in response
to those who wish to link with it; its negative
capability leaving it open to impression. So that
awareness of what it is, and the nature of
interaction with it, can change across the life of a
people or an individual.
Given the traditional society of Lewis, the
pervasive relationship has been a functional one;
one that has been appreciative of what the
moorland provides and which does so if it is
understood and nurtured. From early times, people
living in its coastal townships have utilised the
moor on a seasonal basis and this necessitated
having a rich and extensive mind-map with an
intricate pattern of placenames criss-crossing its
many locations. Indeed, its seeming quiet
formlessness required an ascribed pinpointing of
names to make it known.
Along with placenames and accumulated
experience came the network of story, which gave to
the moorland yet another layer of societal memory
and meaning. Small cairns often mark distant
events; the past held in the present by naming and
by story. As this grew, so did the awareness of the
moorland as an abstract concept. People traversed
the known and named moor constantly; this often
related to the tending of animals, be this to do with
small, crofting bands of sheep that always ‘took’ to
that part of the moor that was their first grazing as
young lambs, or with taking the cattle to summer
shielings deep into the high moors of the island,
along the heathery shoulders of streams and lochs.
The moor offered another intimate and densely
named interaction within the seasonal and carefully
tended work of securing the year’s supply of
household peats. Each family being allocated its
own set of peatbanks, the knowledge of generations
went into the art of procuring fuel in this way, with
the young acquiring the set of necessary skills and
the extensive vocabulary that went with it.
Physically and emotionally one was reared to
become embedded in the very substance of the
moor.
Gaelic songs deal with the most telling of the
emotional markers of island life and sudden
dislocation in love or migration often comprise the
central theme. In their idealistic dream of ‘home’,
the very core of their identity, Lewis songs of
longing invariably serenade the mythic emblem of
childhood yearnings – the surrounding seas and the
ochre and russet moors. The songsters define Lewis
in terms of these, and these alone.
One tincture of the moorland ‘neglected peat-
hags’ is seen, as with the great Hugh MacDiarmid:
‘sphagnum moss in pastel shades/of yellow, green
and pink; sundew and butterwort/waiting with
wide-open sticky leaves for their tiny winged prey.’
‘Nothing but heather!’ is how some apostrophise
the ‘multiform’ moors. And to raise one’s eyes is to
behold the blues of haze across the distant stretches,
often fading into gentle foothills. ‘I could see in all
directions,’ wrote the Lewis writer Norman
Morrison, ‘miles of heather-clad landscape,
intermixed with bog-down or cotton sedge (the
canach of the Gaelic bards), so that it looked as if it
had been sprayed with snowflakes.’
If societal changes mean that the young do not
relate to the moorland as in the past, so that their
feeling for it is not enriched and matured in first-
hand experience, it becomes an issue of heuristics as
to how they may develop their concepts of
appreciation and conservation. Where their crofting
forebears had their functional approach to
conservation, it has now become a question of how
young people are to be socialised so as to attain a
more ‘distant’ or abstract feeling for conservation.
The question of prime importance is how to aid
and educate the young to an awareness of the
significance of diversity, fragility and conservation.
While such cognizance of the importance of the
natural environment remains unheralded those who
see ‘nothing but heather’ will continue to see the
moorland merely as a fallow and forlorn zone into
which large-scale industrial development, in the
form of massive wind farms, fits ideally. ‘I drove to
this meeting through miles and miles of nothing,’
reported one local councillor at a public meeting in
Lewis. Where diversity is spurned, in nature or in
language or in culture, there is epitomised a dismal
failure of imaginative education. In the hiatus
between a functional and a metaphoric relationship
with landscape, a terrible blankness resides.
While landscape such as the Lewis moorland lies
under threat it is noteworthy that few and only the
weakest of comments have been made, concerning
this, by educators or by writers or artists. How has it
become so difficult to defend such an environment
or speak effectively of its importance?
Even at its most docile, the Lewis moor can instil
threat and fear. At times it wraps itself in dense and
beguiling mist, giving rise to panic and confusion in
those lost in it. Poets write of its attraction but also
of its ultimate threat as with the Lewis poet Derick
Thomson, writing: ‘The heaving, billowy, fruitful
bog/lying there till eternity/with its mouth
open/swallowing sheep/ and men/ and me.’ On to
the dreaded Satan-like ‘moor stalker’ of past days,
Mac an t-Srònaich, whose supposed dastardly
attacks petrified women and children at their
shielings: yet he exclaimed ‘Seven years have you
succoured me, brindled moorland of Lewis!’ And
me; tenfold.
l Finlay MacLeod, a Lewisman, is a JMT member
and is a member of the Lewis anti-windfarm group
Moorland Without Turbines.
THE MOORLAND OF LEWIS by Finlay MacLeod
‘Miles of heather-clad landscape, intermixed with bog-down or cotton sedge, so that it looked as if it had ben sprayed with snowflakes.’ Photo Anne Campbell.
24 John Muir Trust Journal
WHAT’S IN A NAME?A placename walk though the mountains of Harris andnorthwards to Lewis
Jean Mills
THE NAMES IN LEWIS AND HARRIS (without going into
historical detail) may be Norse, Gaelic, English, anglicised Gaelic,
gaelicised Norse, anglicised gaelicised Norse or even anglicised
gaelicised scadinavianised Gaelic! But let’s not be put off.
Starting from Miabhaig (narrow bay) there’s a strong track
through the glen. In the hills to the west is a lochan called Loch a’
Mhuillin. Possibly it supplied water for a mill via Abhainn a’
Mhuillin (river of the mill). There’s an ancient connection with
many rivers called Afon or Avon: Gaelic bh sounds like English v.
We go between Cleisabhal (cliff fell) and Uisgneabhal Beag
and Mor. Uisge is Gaelic for water or rain, beag is small and mor
is big. I don’t think this hill is any wetter than others but possibly
it supplied water for a settlement below via Lag Garbh (rough
hollow). Bhal is from Norse fjall and sometimes appears as val.
Smearasmal appears as a sròn (nose) and glac (hollow or
defile). Smear is from Norse smyör meaning butter. It could refer
to a shieling for the dairy cows as a Smirisary on the mainland or
to a place where sheep were gathered for smearing (before sheep
dips they had butter and tar rubbed into their skin – lovely job!)
Tiorga, 3 miles away as the eagle flies is thought to be from
tjorgadhr, a place sheep were tarred. It seems unlikely the work
was done on these far heights but they could have been the
dominant hills near the work sites. Tiorga Mòr is now the scene
of an annual hill race. Perhaps it will get a new name?
Passing Loch Scourst we walk below Sròn Scourst. Sròn (nose)
is always prominent bare rock with cliffs and sometimes
overhangs, very attractive to climbers. Scourst is said to be from
sgiort or possibly sgùird meaning skirt, or sgurd, a corner of
land. Looking up I’m sure you will see skirt shapes. These craggy
promontories mostly face north, ie towards Lewis. They make it
easier to understand how one island became two in name. It is
likely that Harris got its name from people looking from the
north – na Hearadh – the heights. They must have looked nearly
impassable.
Opposite is Òireabhal. This could be whin fell, gorse fell or
maybe gravel fell, from Norse eyre. Take a look and see what fits.
Nearer and lower is Cleit Cathadail. The recurring cleit tells of a
rock face or rocky ridge. Dail is generally what it sounds like.
Now the valley opens out and we have gentler slopes and
evidence of temporary habitation. There are shieling remains and
higher, above the eas (waterfall) the name Lag an Taige-cloiche
appears (hollow of the stone house). This was probably
distinguished by being made entirely of stone, whereas most
shieling huts, being only used in summer, were partly built with
turf.
Coming down to Lochan an Fheòir (grassy loch) we are under
Sròn Ard. Ard means high but often occurs as a promontory and
the first part of a name, as in Aird a’ Mhulaidh beside Loch
Shìpoirt. To the west is Gormul Mòr or Gormal Mòr. I would like
to call this ‘big blue hill’ (gorm – blue, al – hard rock) but McIver
gives ‘clean swept’. This is a good example of a little knowledge
being a dangerous thing in place names. It needs a great deal of
research to be certain.
If you now want to stay among mountains you might turn
eastwards between Loch Chleistear and Creag Chleister. If this is
from Clystr meaning pony path, it indicates a very old route. It
crosses two high passes and descends between them to Glen
Langadale and the river feeding Loch Langabhat (long loch, vatn
– Norse lake), two examples of doubles, or tautology if you like.
Langadale doesn’t need ‘glen’ and Langabhat doesn’t need ‘loch’.
Bealach na h-Uamha is ‘pass of the cave’. The cave is in the slope
to the SE. The path ends at Bowglas after passing, on the south
side of the glen, Druim nan Caoraich (ridge of the sheep) and
Loch nan Learg (of the black-throated divers).
If you are continuing northwards from Loch an Fheòir you
will pass Loch Bhoisimid. Its name means it has a current
flowing through the middle. This becomes Abhainn Mhòr Ceann
Reasort (Mhòr, not Mòr because Abhainn is feminine) which
joins with Abhainn a’Chlair Bhig at Tota Choinnich (mossy walls
or ruin). Tota used to refer to the turf walls of the shielings but
has come to mean ruin. This river crosses Clàr Beag (little plain)
and Chlar Bhig is the genitive form of this – so river of the little
plain. Beyond this is Airidh na Lurga. Airidh is the Gaelic shieling
and lurg is a gentler slope between hill and plain. Westwards Salla
Ruidear describes these wet lands well. Salla means dirt or filth or
mud; ruidear is a Gaelic name for herb robert, a pink flowered
plant, but it could come from hrutr, a ram.
At Ceann Loch Reasort we have a common element of Scottish
place names. Ceann, meaning head, often appears kin. Resort or
resord seems to mean boundary or march fjord. Here was one of
several settlements now deserted. Luachair, nearby, means rushes.
So from here you cross into Lewis and the Morsgail forest and
a boggy tramp towards Loch Morsgail. Skali is a Norse name for
shieling, so Morsgail was a moor shieling. Except for Mointeach
(peat moss or moorland) and Salla behind us we don’t seem to
have any names describing this lower land, but then a lack of
names can also tell us something and also, for instance, we have
not passed any places with bost (farm or settlement) in the name.
I think we have a fair picture of how the land we have traversed
was used and why, according to its physical features and remains.
l Please don’t use this as a route guide. I have not been precise
about paths or the lack of them.
Looking up Glen Miabhaig to Òireabhal (L, 662 m) in falling hailor snow, and Sròn Scourst (491 m). Eric Meadows May 1955.
Jean Mills is a JMTmember who liveson Scalpaigh.
For more names,she suggests youmight try thefollowing books:
The Western Isles,their History,Traditions andPlacenames, W CMacKenzie,1932.
Placenames ofScarp, JohnMacLennan,2001.
Placenames ofLewis and Harris,D McIver, 1934.
ScottishPlacenames, W F H Nicolaisen,1976.
Dwelly’ sdictionary.
John Muir Trust Journal 25
BooksThe Marshal’s Journal
Reviewed by John Donohoe
Duncan MacEachen, first cousin 5 times removed of Neil MacEachen, beside the ruin of Neil’s house at Howbeg, South Uist.
Tomm
y MacD
onald
The French MacDonald Journey of aMarshal of Napoléon in the Highlands andIslands of Scotland, trans. Jean-Didier Hache.Islands Book Trust, £10 + £2 P&PThis is a remarkable story. The French born
son of a Hebridean exile returns to see the
land of his forebears and meet up with his
relatives. So, big deal! But the exile was Neil
MacEachen, close companion of Charles
Edward Stuart and the organiser of the
bonnie boat taking the Prince and Flora
MacDonald over the sea to Skye. And the
son, Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexandre
MacDonald was a senior politician, Arch-
Chancellor of the Légion d’Honneur and
retired Marshall of the French Army. A
young officer in the royal army, he
prospered during the paranoia and madness
of the French Revolution, survived the
jealousy and suspicion of Napoleon
Bonaparte, and even the restoration of the
monarchy, carefully sidestepping the
desperate last throw that ended at Waterloo
in 1815.
In 1825 MacDonald visited Britain, and
this diary records the part of that journey
through Scotland, where he was anxious to
visit the MacDonald heartland, especially
the Clanranald territory of Moidart and
South Uist. 80 years previously his father
had been a hunted fugitive. Now, Jacobites
were back in fashion and Walter Scott,
whom he met, had spawned the romantic
tartanry with which we are still living.
MacDonald was given lots of official
support including the use of a Royal Navy
ship, more commonly used to harass the
illicit whisky trade. That’s the same navy
that raped and plundered their way through
the islands in an orgy of destruction in their
hunt for the Prince and his companions.
On South Uist MacDonald visited
Howbeg (Tobha Beag) where his father was
born then sailed round to Gleann Coradail
on the east coast where Neil and the Prince
had skulked in the cave, Uamh a Phrionnsa.
The islanders turned up in great numbers,
including some of his cousins. The Marshall
spoke only French and a little English so all
communication had to be translated from
and to Gaelic. He also visited the main
MacDonald strongholds in Sleat and
Antrim before returning to the south coast
and home. The diary was not intended for
publication; his bad handwriting was
transcribed by his daughter so there are a
number of unclear passages. This modern
translation is by Jean-Didier Hache, a
Parisian with a long association with
Scotland and its Western Isles who also
provides a history and background of the
Jacobites in France. Information on the
Scottish scene is provided by Domhnall
Uilleam Stiubhart.
Then as now South Uist was caught up in
momentous change. The clan chiefs needed
the local people to collect and prepare kelp
and had supported legislation which
effectively prevented them from emigrating.
Kelp prices were tumbling and with them
the whole West Highland economy and the
disastrous Clanranald dynasty. The islanders
would before long be left at the mercy of
the rapacious Colonel Gordon of Cluny and
the clearances would begin in earnest.
Thankfully, the recent buyout under the
Land Reform legislation leaves the future of
the area much more in the hands of the
local community.
I would recommend this book to anyone
interested in this fascinating period in
Scottish history, as the clan system
disintegrated, Edinburgh New Town neared
completion, a prosperous middle class
emerged and early political organisation
among workers was harshly suppressed. The
Islands Book Trust is dedicated to
producing material in and about the
Scottish islands and this volume is an
important addition to their list.
Oh, and you will be glad to know that
Marshall MacDonald got a warm welcome
at Kinfauns, where the castle was just being
built.
• John Donohoe is a Trustee of the John
Muir Trust. He writes in a personal
capacity.
Monadh Ruadh odysseyA Cairngorm Chronicle by A F Whyte.Millrace Books, £14.95. ISBN 978 1 902173238.
Before dawn on a June day in 1904, three
young men set off from the Shelter Stone,
where they had rested and enjoyed a
Woodbine after descending from Cairn
Gorm the night before. An account of their
38-mile tramp ending that evening at Dell
of Rothiemurchus is the centre of this book,
written in the 1940s and discovered many
26 John Muir Trust Journal
Books
Mohammed Achari welcomes Charles Knowles (L)and Hamish Brown to the Bou Guemez.
years later by the author’s daughter.
Fred Whyte was Liberal MP for Perth at age 26,
and that was only the start of a distinguished public
career. So it was some relief to find that his book is
light on challenges and statistics, and full of
enquries and observations – about Gaelic place
names, inter-visibility, the source of rivers, how to
make a herring bap and the benefits of soaping
your socks. Just for the record, though, their route
included nine Munros and 9300 feet of ascent.
A touching epitaph finds him, in his 60s,
stranded in Glen Einich with a gammy knee and
musing on the golden eagle ‘sent as a painful
reminder of the littleness of man’.
What is it with the Cairngorms? They produce
literature where other ranges yield writing. The
same might be said of Millrace Books, with this
well-made and present-sized offering. Only 500
have been printed: caveat lector.
MM
Dumfries & Galloway25 walks: Dumfries and Galloway by Tom Whitty.Mercat Press, list £9.99 online £7.49. ISBN1841831182Flying back from Shannon the clouds parted briefly.
Where on earth are we? I don’t recognise this
coastline. Ah, that little harbour, it’s Portpatrick, of
course, on the Rhinns of Galloway. I’m sure I’m not
alone in neglecting the south west of Scotland in my
stravaiging. It’s inexcusable, as this region has
everything, except the dubious benefit of Munros.
This little book might persuade you to visit. It is
an update by Mercat Press of the original 1995
HMSO guide, part of a series covering walking areas
throughout Britain edited by Roger Smith. This
particular volume is written by Tom Whitty, a
countryside ranger with extensive knowledge of the
local path network and the spine of the Southern
Upland Way. This long distance path features
significantly, forming part of attractive circular
walks. The walks take in caves, castles brochs, and
some world famous outdoor sculpture. Most of the
walks are less than 10 km in length, and some are
very suitable for a stroll for a couple of hours. The
longest, 25 km around Moffat can easily be
shortened if the weather deteriorates.
The layout is clear and concise, and each walk is
shown on an OS map base. It takes a while to realise
that the maps are at different scales, being adjusted
to get the walk to fit in one page, but it is clear that
the gridlines are a kilometre apart. If you are mainly
intent on bagging, there are other more suitable
guidebooks. If you are interested in seeing a variety
of attractive places and learning something of the
people and their rich history then this guide is ideal.
And you can collect waymerks!
JD
An overfull life: Hugh Miller
Hugh Miller: Stonemason, Geologist, Writer byMichael A Taylor. National Museums of Scotland,176 pp, £12.99. ISBN 978 1 905267 05 7.The Victorian geologist Hugh Miller, born on the
Black Isle, had a far-reaching impact in science; not
only from his ground-breaking discoveries of fossil
fish, but also in his writings that brought fossils to
life for generations of readers. His lifelong
fascination with rocks and fossils stemmed from his
early years as a stonemason on the Black Isle. His
formal education was short, but his reputation as a
fossil collector, and as a careful analyser of what he
found, ensured that he had an international
reputation in geology’s early days. He concentrated
mainly on the fossil fish from the Old Red
Sandstone and younger rocks in the north of
Scotland, but he also travelled further afield, for
example to the island of Eigg, where he discovered
Plesiosaur remains and speculated on the nature of
the lava flow that forms the famous Sgurr.
From a modern perspective, Hugh Miller’s life
seems overfull! His geological studies were mainly a
spare time pursuit, as he was also deeply involved in
the Free Church and editor for many years of The
Witness, one of Edinburgh’s most popular
newspapers. Combining his interest in geology with
his skills in writing gives us Hugh Miller’s greatest
legacy – a huge output of articles and books that
popularised geology and educated the people of
Scotland. His wife Lydia continued publishing after
his death, with books such as Testimony of the
Rocks and The Old Red Sandstone remaining in
publication for decades.
Miller’s reputation has been tainted by his suicide
in 1856, at the age of 54, and the common
perception that he was driven to take his own life by
his failure to reconcile his religious beliefs with the
evidence of the rocks. In this new biography,
Michael Taylor from the National Museums of
Scotland takes a fresh look at Hugh Miller. This
sympathetic portrayal draws on many sources
including Miller’s own writing to present a wide
review of the many strands of his life, suggesting his
suicide was due to mental illness exacerbated by
overwork. It is well worth reading to understand the
context of Miller’s life, his impact on Scottish
geology, and as an introduction to his writing.
Angus MillerAngus Miller runs Geowalks, guided walks and
courses exploring the geology and landscapes of
Scotland. www.geowalks.co.uk.
• Michael Taylor wrote on the parallels between
John Muir and Hugh Miller in JMT Journal 32,
January 2002.
Next JournalFebruary 2008
Please contact the editor by theend of November with your ideas
for longer articles.
AtlastraverseThe Mountains Look on Marrakech by HamishBrown. Whittles Publishing, £25.00. ISBN 978 1870325 29 5.l shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize 2007Morocco has been Hamish Brown’s second home
now for 40 years and there are few Europeans with
such an extensive knowledge of the Atlas Mountains.
The Mountains Look on Marrakech describes a 96-
day, 900-mile traverse of the Atlas in 1996 by
Hamish and Charles Knowles with Berber muleteers
Ali and Hosain (plus their mules Taza and Tamri).
The short appendix on the history of Atlas
exploration and the length of the bibliography hint
at the lifetime of research behind this book – but
this is no stuffy tome. The book is a delight. Much
more than a mere travelogue, the journey is the
thread along which the narrative is woven. Hamish’s
affection for the Berber people and their country is
apparent and he shares with the reader anecdotes
and knowledge accumulated over the years. We see
the importance of planning and the advantage of
Hamish’s experience of the country. Even so he
makes it clear that the journey would not have
succeeded without Ali Elouad – a remarkable
hillman. Ali was always on hand when they
encountered difficulties and it’s sad that the
Moroccan bureaucrats will not recognise him as a
guide because he lacks formal schooling.
My only minor criticism of the book is in the
quality of the photographic reproductions. Every
photograph appears to be taken in twilight! But as
this is not a picture book it doesn’t detract from the
overall enjoyment – publishers please note however
for future editions.
It is almost 30 years since Hamish’s Mountain
Walk described the first non-stop climb of all the
Munros. Many of us use that book for ideas as we
explore the Scottish hills. The Mountains Look on
Marrakech provides a similar role for the Atlas. It’s
an essential aid for planning expeditions, supplies
background information for anyone joining an
organised trek, and is a good read for armchair
travellers.
Peter Willimott
John Muir Trust Journal 27
Five years ago, one of my fellow JMT trustees was Malcolm Slesser. We
already knew each other through mountaineering, and, as many a
mountaineer does, we had also gravitated towards sailing. In Malcolm’s boat
Caol na Mara (Song of the Sea), we demonstrated to the Trust the ultimate in
energy conservation and sailed to a meeting on Skye.
Energy summed up the man; it was either pouring out of him, as an
elemental force, or his intellect was wrestling with it, as a global problem. His
friends could be infuriated by him, but he would be quick to admit to being
wrong. On the sea, as in the mountains, a mildly stressful situation can often
show the real persona, as on the occasion where he decided to face up to the
Mull car ferry. Now this is a large and fast beast, and I was unlucky to be at
the helm as we sailed home for our anchorage just north of Oban. The ferry
had stormed out of harbour and was on a course which would wipe us out. I
pointed this out to the skipper, who told me to hold firm.
As everyone knows, the rules state one point of view, and reality another. I
pointed out our suicide course a second time, just to make sure, and he
confirmed his decision. Well, I replied, it’s your boat. All this while, I was
eyeing the life jackets and wondering at my chances in the water. We were in
luck: the ferry blinked first and pulled away to starboard. Malcolm looked
over and with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes said well done. Was he testing
the rules of the sea, the ferry, or his crew?
In his energy researches, latterly often made with his partner Jane, he could
be just as assertive and just as right. He has a fair claim to have recognised an
‘energy footprint’ ages ago, before the planet came under visible threat from
human excesses. His small bothy on the west coast had a solar panel. No
excess here however, it could run a light bulb or slowly pump water into a
header tank. The John Muir Trust should have had him years earlier, as its
energy consultant, if only he could have been pinned down, for he was an
inveterate explorer, opening up the Staunings Alps in Greenland and climbing
boldly elsewhere. As it was, we were lucky enough to have had him on board.
He was Scottish to a fault, and stood twice for Parliament as an SNP
candidate. His hard work there, though not leading to his seat, paved the way
for a later candidate. He regarded mountaineering as the last place where
individuals could thrive through their own judgment, or fail through their
own errors, and all without interference from a ‘nanny state’. In solving the
country’s energy problems, he came to the same conclusion as I had, that
alternative sources were insufficient and nuclear energy would be needed.
This is what his research had shown, and this is what he had reluctantly
accepted.
In life he was generous to his friends and great company, whether in a
mountain hut or at sea. He revelled in wild land and worried over its future.
I can only hope that some time in the future, if I’m in need, the old Viking’s
boat would stop, and pick me up. We’ll toast him with a few lines from
Kismul’s Galley:
‘Here’s red wine
And feast for heroes
And harping too
And sweet sweet harping too’
Note: Malcolm died on a western hill, having apparently suffered a heart
attack. It was as he had wished it would be. He was in his 81st year, not that
it showed!
Malcolm SlesserRecalled by Ken Crocket
Gift Membership - the perfect Christmas or Birthdaypresent for someone who loves wild places
Introduce a friend or relativeto the John Muir Trust andhelp to protect wild land.
‘The Gift of Wildness’
The Gift Membership Pack includes a Wild NatureDiary, packed with stunning images by top landscapephotographers such as John Beatty and Joe Cornish.
The pack also includes our Wild Land Journal,more information about the Trust, a John Muir Trust penand a ‘Love the Hills’ wristband. Family Membershipincludes in addition a pack of 10 greetings cardsand an extra pen and wristband.
Individual Gift Membership: £34Family Gift membership: £46
Arrange Gift Membership online at www.jmt.org/memberships,complete the form enclosed with this Journal, or telephone 0131 554 0114.
Ken Crocket
28 John Muir Trust Journal
Events
ContactsAberdeen areaSteve Green, 01339 88 55 74
Glasgow & West of ScotlandMike Gray, 01360 550962, Heather Willimott 01360 311304
Strathspey Alan Keegan, 01479 811047
NW Highlands Sue Hopkinson, 01854 612756
Edinburgh & Lothians Karren Smith, 07977 182137
NE EnglandEric Gendle, 01642 281235
YorkshireJohn Page, 01904 425175
BristolBrian Pollard, 0117 942 4951
HampshireRog Harris, 01794 522157
Newbury areaMike Merchant, 01488 608672
Oxford areaFiona Hunter, 07729 484870
Norfolk and Suffolk Geoffrey Rowe, 01603 464200
CambridgeRichard Hindle, 01223 504264
South WalesJohn Taylor, 01568 614831
North WalesRob Colllister, 01492 582448
13 Nov on Alpine Club, LondonJMT supporter David Bellamy has an exhibition at the Alpine Club, London EC2,from 13 November. He’s showing watercolours and oils of mountain sceneryfrom Scotland to South America, plus the Alps, Himalayas, Arctic and other partsof the UK. To attend the preview from 5 pm on 13 November followed by alecture by Kenton Cool at 7.30pm, ring 01982 560237 or email [email protected] exhibition continues until Christmas, but is onlyopen at certain times. For times, ring the Alpine Club on a Tuesday, Wednesdayor Thursday on 0207 613 0755. 55/56 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3QF.Pictured: Bec rouge, watercolour.
JOHN MUIR TRAIL‘For a long time, I have wanted to walk this famous trail in the Sierra Nevada. Now I amstarting to make plans to do it. I’d like to collect advice from those who have actuallycompleted the trail. I’m especially interested in the best time to go, getting to & from thetrail, food supplies, preventing bear trouble.’
If you can help, please contact David Kyles, at [email protected].
with Project Officer Hugh Chalmers,[email protected].
Thu 29 Nov Talk, Glasgow‘Duncan Ban MacIntyre’. An account by authorand raconteur Ian Mitchell of the life and timesof the extraordinary 18th century bard.7 pm Glasgow Caledonian University RoomW119.Note new group contacts: Mike Gray 01360550962, Heather Willimott 01360 311304.
9–18 Nov Kendal Film &c FestivalJMT stall at the Kendal Mountain Festivals from16–18 Nov.www.mountainfilm.co.uk.
23–24 Nov Dundee Film FestivalDundee Mountain Film Festival, with JMT stall.www.dundeemountainfilm.org.uk.
30 Nov/2 Dec Paintings, DunblaneCome Rich and Lovely Winter’s Eve –paintings by Iona Leishman GSWA. A charityexhibition at Iona’s home where buyers willonce again be encouraged to support JMT. At63 Argyle Way, Dunblane FK15 9DY (01786824417). Dates and times are:Friday 30 November noon–8pm, Saturday 1December 11am–8pm, Sunday 2 December11am–8pm.
Events
Fri 26 Oct Meetings, UllapoolJMT Chairman Dick Balharry will be visiting theMacphail Centre, Ullapool.• Afternoon training/get together of localmembers interested in acting as occasionalroving ambassadors at Sandwood and Quinag.3pm–5pm.• Reception and buffet supper for localmembers from the NW to meet the chairman.6pm–7.30 pm. Members are invited to bringfriends.• ‘Wild land for people and wildlife’. Illustratedtalk and discussion with Dick. Combinedmeeting of JMT and Lochbroom Field Club.7.30 pm–9 pm.Information from Sue Hopkinson, 01854612756, [email protected].
2007–08 Planting Carrifran WildwoodRestoring native woodland to an entire uplandcatchment. Sundays 18 Nov, 20 Jan, 17 Feb,16 Mar, 20 Apr and 18 May. Meet Carrifran carpark (NT 159115), 10 am. A708 12 km fromMoffat. Contact Peter Dreghorn,[email protected], information athttp://groups.google.co.uk/group/WWood.There are also volunteering opportunities onmost Tuesdays, and for treeline planting duringhigh camping weekends on 16/17 Feb, 15/16Mar, 19/20 Apr, 17/18 May, by arrangement
John Muir Trust Journal 29
Happy days in Knoydart
The article by John Cleare (Knoydart & Loch
Hourn,Journal 42) brings back some happy
memories from June 1988.
In April that year my friend Rayond Revill and I
did a magnificent trek in Nepal, to the Langtang
valley, over the Laurabiner pass and down the
Halambu valley to Kathmandu. A few weeks later
we ‘walked in’ to Barrisdale from Kinloch Hourn
and pitched our tent near the bothy there. The
midges were bad and each night penetrated our tent
in large numbers. So we decided to leave about 5
am to climb Ladhar Bheinn which was the main
purpose of our little expedition.
Sadly there was cloud on the top so we saw none
of the famous views. We wandered along the ridges
for a couple of hours but we were well down from
the top when the clouds dispersed by mid-morning.
When we returned to our campsite there was
another tent pitched, which was occupied by three
affable gentlemen from West Yorkshire, who had
arrived over by boat from Arnisdale. They were well
stocked with midge repellents and the like, which
they generously offered to us. They did little to repel
the midges which were in clouds everywhere. So we
had another early start the next morning, and
walked the Luinne Bheinn tops.
The following morning, 29 June, we decided to
pack up camp and leave early. Breakfast with the
midges was impossible so we were on the lochside
path back to Kinloch Hourn by about 5 am. We met
up with a walker, and after a few minutes’
conversation I recognised that it was John Cleare.
He had been on the photographic venture that he
described in his article. We walked back with him to
his VW campervan at the road-end car park. He
kindly supplied several large beakers of tea to
assuage our thirst, for it was already a hot morning.
He also autographed one of his pictures in my
edition of Irvine Butterfield’s ‘High Mountains’
(what a wonderful book this still is!).
We had our lunch that day on the summit of
Sgurr a Mhaoraich, whilst the beer that evening was
especially welcome and plentiful in the Tomdoun
Hotel. My legs took several days to resume their
normal colour after all the midge bites. In future we
decided that Scottish holidays should be completed
Letters
by mid-June to avoid the midge (if that is possible).
Happy days.
Edward Bunting
Hartlepool
Another way
David Thornley (Letters, Journal 42) should realise
the problem with wind farm paraphernalia, pylons
etc is not just a visual one (I find it odd a JMT
member finds most of the highlands uninteresting).
Whole ecosystems will go under concrete and be
lost – flora, fauna, wildlife habitats.
Mr Thornley states fossil-fuelled power stations
would not have to be kept on standby. How so? –
the stored energy used on an industrial scale would
not last long and meanwhile we would have to wait
for boilers to get up steam to turn the turbines. He
admits they are inefficient.
Anyway, why isn’t the government forcing
builders to erect eco-friendly homes with solar
panels? The land is already out there, it’s called
rooftops, and would take some of the pressure off
our landscapes. I would prefer the lights to go out
and see our countryside. There has to be another
way, and No, I will not be voting for windmills on
an industrial scale.
Keep up the good work.
J K Baker
Watton at Stone, Herts
Practical action on global warming
In the July JMT NEWS, Dick Balharry reminds us
that global warming ‘needs to be part of the future’.
How are we to respond in practical ways in
reducing global warming while taking account of
the needs of local communities affected by
proposals for renewable energy schemes? With an
agreed policy to rule out industrial-style schemes
because of their unacceptable impact on the
scenery, in itself a valuable resource, then practical
solutions of electrical generation for local
distribution must be simple, safe and in tune with
the landscape.
Windmills can be an appropriate choice, but care
is needed in their siting and detailed design. In
Denmark the location of windmills is decided by
the local planning authority. The Local Plan will
determine siting, the numbers within each group,
the height and colour of the masts, the means of
access and landscaping. The local community and
developers will then know the rules.
In much of the discussion of renewable energy
there is barely a mention of hydro power which is
an immense resource. Design of a hydro station
needs the skills of the engineer, the architect and the
ecologist working as a team. Small scale run of river
projects should present few difficulties if they are
carefully sited, sensitively designed and unobtrusive.
Part of the future will include the railways
converting to electric traction, which is a different
agenda. It need not present a new threat to the
landscape, wild or otherwise, but it would be very
significant in tackling global warming.
Alan Wightman
Portree
Wind power ‘pathetically small’
In Journal 42 Richard Brownsword takes Andrew
Nelson to task regarding his ‘flawed thesis’ on
backup for intermittent wind energy. Dr
Brownsword, who actually works for the wind
industry, should be aware of the European Wind
Integration Study Towards a Successful Integration
of Wind Power into European Electricity Grids
(January 2007), in which it states ‘the variable
contributions from wind power must be balanced
almost completely with other backup generating
capacity located elsewhere’. Any backup in the UK
has to be sourced from our power stations as we
cannot import any useful amount of wind power
from Europe, given that the cross-channel capacity
is only 2 GW and this is almost in full use anyway.
Wind energy was supposed to replace that from
conventional power stations, yet we are building
more power stations, while wind power remains
pathetically small (just 1% in 2006 according to
BERR, the old DTI).
Some windfarms, like Scroby Sands offshore
windfarm are dogged by gearbox and undersea
cable faults, providing a graphic illustration of how
the wind industry is all about appearances and little
to do with producing energy.
The British Wind Energy Association is
infiltrating every organisation that might appear as
a threat to their cause, including such luminaries as
the RSPB and WWF, with the RNLI of all people
being one of their latest converts. So I wonder how
much interest Dr Brownsword really takes in wild
land?
David Bellamy
Builth Wells
Looking down lower CoireDhorrcail of Ladhar Bheinnout to Loch Hourn andBeinn Sgritheall.©JOHN.CLEARE/Mountain Camera
Picture Library
YOUR LETTERSTo the editor by end of 2007, please.
Contact details on page 1.
30 John Muir Trust Journal
JMTclassifiedSelf-catering
ABOYNE 4* s/c for 2, ACHILTIBUIE 3* 3 bedroomhouse overlooking Summer Isles. No pets; children7yr+ welcome. Mrs J H Strachan, Dorevay, Aboyne,Aberdeenshire AB34 5BT. 013398 86232; [email protected], www.holidayfreedomscotland.com.
ANDALUCIA small house in the mountains withprivate pool, panoramic views, remote rural situa-tion, 45 minutes from Malaga Airport. Good birdwatching, walks; Natural Park 10 minutes drive.£175–250 pw. www.las-fincas.co.uk,[email protected].
ARDNAMURCHAN Croft by the shore of LochShiel. Comfy s/c cottage, sleeps 6, secluded &unspoilt location, mature garden. Excellent views,walking, beaches, rich in wildlife. £250 to £350 perweek. For more information call 0131 557 2657 orvisit www.dalileacroft.co.uk .
ARRAN Millhouse at Pirnmill. Non-smoking. Sleeps4, 3 bedrooms, 3*. Spacious accommodation withspectacular views and secluded garden. £310–400pw; 10% JMT discount. Contact [email protected], tel 0131 667 2267.
AUCHTERMUCHTY NE Fife. New for 2006, superblodge in quiet rural setting. STB 4*. The perfect self-catering hideaway. One king/en-suite, one twin/largebathroom. www.baincraiglodge.co.uk or phone Lizor Brian on 01337 828386.
BALLATER 2 newly completed 4* luxury self cater-ing apartments in heart of village. Perfect base forhiking and biking. Tullich apartment (£350–500)sleeps 4, Gairn (£500–750) sleeps 6. Both also havesofa beds. 0141 353 3839, www.ballaterlodge.co.uk.
Between BEN NEVIS & GLENCOE – Inchree Cen-tre. Self-catering chalet & hostel accommodation.On-site pub & restaurant with good food, real alesand open fire. www.inchreecentre.co.uk for moreinfo. Tel 01855 821287.
CAITHNESS Curlew Cottage. Superb views, attrac-tive garden, STB four star. Otters, wildcats, seals,ospreys, puffins, wild coastline and flow country allnear. Sleeps 4+cot, sorry no pets. £270-440 pw.www.curlewcottage.com, 01847 895638.
DORNOCH Maple Leaf Cottage, sleeps 4, close golfcourse and beach, ideal base for Loch Fleet NatureReserve and exploring the far north. Discount forJMT members. Mrs Norna Hall, Matrons Cottage,Cambusavie, by Dornoch IV25 3JD. 01408 633340.
DUNALASTAIR holiday houses, Perthshire. Seclud-ed and unique cottages in Highland Perthshire over-looked by Schiehallion. 4-posters, log fires, fishing,tennis. Pets welcome. Central for touring. RingMelanie on 0845 230 1491; [email protected],www.dunalastair.com.
ELGOL, Skye. Snug, romantic 200-y.o. Force 10-resistant 2 room 1 bed cottage in Cuillins. Islandsview. Lets year round. Details, availability,[email protected], 07887 528087.
GALLOWAY Comfortable self-catering in Lauriestonvillage, ideal for exploring Scotland's beautifulsouthwest. Hillwalking, forest walks, lots of wonder-ful wildlife. Sleeps 8 at a pinch, terms reduced for
small numbers. Full brochure 01224-595561,[email protected].
GLEN AFFRIC: cosy, well equipped cottage, sleeps 4in the conservation village of Tomich. Ideal for walk-ing, birdwatching, biking, fishing. Open all year.C/H, wood-burning stove, garden, dogs welcome.Details: [email protected], 01721 723339.
GLENCOE two 4*STB self-catering cottages in theheart of Glencoe’s mountains. Cottages are fullyequipped and sleep up to six people. Open all year,pets by arrangement. David and Chris Baker, 01855811598, www.glencoemountaincottages.co.uk.
GLENELG Traditional cosy cottage, sleeps 4. Ideal forSkye (summer months) and Knoydart, as well asGlenshiel hills. Contact Robert on 020 89463319 [email protected].
HIGHLANDS 2 charming cottages, sleep 4, CH,open fires, lovely views. Cnoc Eoghainn: KinlochRannoch village, near Schiehallion and Loch Ran-noch, STB 3*. Ballindalloch Cott., Errogie: isolatedMonadliath moorland setting, South Loch Ness.01456 486358, [email protected].
ISLE OF SKYE, Staffin. Pair of 2 bedroomed bunga-lows to let, views of sea/mountains. Sleeps 4, pets byarrangement, no smoking. Open all year, £195–£340week www.staffinbaycottages.co.uk, [email protected], Paul & Helen Webster(01470) 562419.
LAKE DISTRICT nr Kendal. Converted barn, sleepsup to 5. Ideal base for Lakes, Howgills, and NorthLancashire. Just bring your boots, or phone 01785-665834 for brochure.
LAKE DISTRICT Lorton-Buttermere valley. 3 well-equipped cottages sleep 2/5/8 in former hill farm.(ETB 3-star) Ideal for family reunions. Stunningviews. Walk or bike from door. 5 lakes within sevenmiles. 0190085206, www.highswinside.demon.co.uk.
LOCHAVICH, ARGYLL Warm, comfortable cottagein isolated but accessible glen 18 miles south ofOban. Miles of walking and stunning scenery ondoorstep. £230-£350/w fully inclusive.www.assc.co.uk/maolachy, Mrs Georgina Dalton,01866 844212, [email protected].
MORZINE, HAUTE SAVOIE Modern 2 bedroomapartment, sleeps 4-6. Located close to GR5 trail inunspoilt Alpine valley 1 km from village centre. Hugevariety of walking and mountain biking. Geneva air-port 80 mins. 01223 496570.
THE OA, ISLAY. Superb 3 bedroom house in peace-ful seclusion. Sleeps 6. Open fire, well-stocked book-case, vintage record collection, fishing permit. NearRSPB reserve. No pets. Open all year. Couples dis-count. www.islay-cottage.co.uk, 0131 553 1911.
OLDSHOREMORE (Sandwood Estate) Caravan,sleeps 6, open April–October. Contact Anne Mackay,01971 521335.
SANDWOOD area. At Rhiconich: Gull Cottage,sleeps 4, and the Barn, sleeps 2. Both fully equippedand open all year. Graham or Lynn, 01971 521717,Gull Cottage, Achriesgill, Rhiconich, Lairg IV27 4RJ.
SANDWOOD Lovely croft house near Polin beachby Kinlochbervie. sleeps 7/8. £175–300 pw. [email protected].
SANDWOOD Self-catering family bungalows atOldshoremore. 3 bedrooms, sleep 5 & 6. STB 3*, 4*.Own field centre, wonderful beaches, hill-walking,
peace. Dilys & Michael Otter, Smithy House, Old-shoremore, Kinlochbervie IV27 4RS. Tel/fax 01971521 729.
PERTHSHIRE Secluded and peaceful self-cateringaccommodation for couples in highland Perthshireon the shore of Loch Tay. Adjacent to Ben LawersNNR and Trossachs National Park. See www.morenishmews.com or call 01567-820527.
POOLEWE ideal base to explore Ross-shire.Lochside croft, stunning views towards Great Wilder-ness. 30 mins S to Slioch and Beinn Eighe NNR.Fully modernised cottage, 3 bedrooms sleeping 6.01445 781307, [email protected],www.seasidecroft.co.uk.
S BRITTANY house (5 beds– comfortably sleeps 7adults) near Quimperle, large garden, £500/week. Onestuary, with small fishing port, cliff walks, coastalpath, beaches. (01344) 845395 evenings. 10% to JMT.
SECLUDED SNOWDONIA Self catering rooms,bunkhouse, yurt, camping in upland valley overlook-ing Conwy valley, panoramic views of Snowdonia.Good base for your JM Award project, advice avail-able. Del Davies 01492640906, [email protected].
SEDBERGH Self catering and B&B in fabulous Vic-torian house at foot of Howgills. Sleeps 6 or 8, dou-ble/twin rooms, 3 bathrooms, shower. Open fire, din-ing kitchen, utility, garden. 015396 20360, [email protected], www.summerhillsedbergh.com.
SKYE Sligachan and Carbost. Two comfortable, wellequipped, traditional cottages sleeping max 8. Eithermakes ideal base for exploring or climbing. Please [email protected] for details, includingavailability calendar, interior and exterior photos. Tel01478 640218.
SKYE, Trotternish STB 4*traditional crofthouse,sensitively modernised. Totally unspoilt situation.Panoramic views of sea, islands, mountains: Torri-don, An Teallach, Kintail etc. Sleeps five. Two bath-rooms. Mature garden. David Hudson, 01449760428, http://freespace.virgin.net/david.hudson5.
SUTHERLAND Comfortable cottage on coast nearLochinver, Assynt (NC 053 264). Close to Quinag,Suilven and other fine hills. Local walks and unspoiltsandy beaches. Sleeps 5, £240–400. For details phone0131 665 2055 or email [email protected].
SUTHERLAND: my delightfully cosy Assynt home isoccasionally available for letting by up to 4 very care-ful guests. If you are interested in finding out whetheryour plans fit mine, please call 07971 532356.
SUTHERLAND Ardmore peninsula, accessible byboat/footpath. 2 comfy cottages. Stunning scenery,otters + seals. Most northerly wood W coast main-land. Far from noise of traffic. Sea kayaking andclimbing available. Marie Christine Ridgway, 01971521229, www.johnridgway.co.uk.
TORRIN, SKYE Clover Hill. STB 4*. Comfortable,well equipped cottage. 3 bedrooms, sleeps 6. Idyllicburnside location. Magnificent view of Blaven acrossLoch Slapin. £285–520. 01471 822763, [email protected], www.cloverhill-torrin.co.uk.
ULLAPOOL, Ross-shire. 4* (STB), 3-bedroom mod-ern bungalow, panoramic views to hills, sleeps 6 (nopets/smoking). Open all year, £375-£60/week incl.www.kilbrannan-ullapool.co.uk, Miss K H Douglas,Achmore, Moss Rd, Ullapool IV26 2TF, tel/fax 01854612236, [email protected].
John Muir Trust Journal 31
Hotels, B&B etc.
4 STAR B&B in the tranquil village of Balnaguard inHighland Perthshire. Wonderful range of break-fasts, friendly hosts and great walking. TelephoneAnn Croft, 01796 482627 or www.balbeagan.com.
BORROWDALE Traditional Lake District walker’shotel. Hearty home cooking, open fire & cosy bar.Special rates available. Royal Oak Hotel, Rosthwaite,Keswick CA12 5XB. 01768 777214, www.royaloakhotel.co.uk.
GLEN AFFRIC NNR, Highlands. Georgian B&B,large en-suite rooms, hill & river views, PloddaFalls. High & low level walks, bike hire, fishing, dogswelcome, drying facilities, evg meal by request.01456 415251, [email protected], www.comarlodge.co.uk.
HIGHLAND Perthshire – Coshieville House B&Boffers a warm family welcome, comfortable nightand hearty breakfast. Nearest B&B to Schiehallion.Guest lounge with wood burning stove. open allyear. www.aberfeldybandb.com, Tel. 01887 830319.
HIGHLAND PERTHSHIRE Logierait, character 2-bedroom cottage overlooking River Tay and hills,near Pitlochry, Aberfeldy and close to Schiehallionand Glen Lyon Munros. Dogs welcome, 01952242088, [email protected].
IONA HOSTEL Independent, STB 4*, on workingcroft at N end. Self-catering, sleeps 21, stunningviews to Rum and Skye, minutes walk from beach.£17.50/night (£12.00 under 10s). Booking recom-mended. 01681 700 781, www.ionahostel.co.uk.
ISLE OF MULL Staffa House offers a warm wel-come. Spacious, comfortable B&B, views of Soundof Iona and Ben More. Walking, wildlife, beaches,boat trips. Delicious meals using local/organic prod-ucts where possible. OAY. 01681 700677,www.staffahouse.co.uk .
ISLE OF SKYE Bed & Breakfast, Mrs Nancy Wight-man, Inveralavaig, Penifiler, by Portree IV51 9NG.East shore of Loch Portree, NG 488423. Tel & fax01478 612 322, www. isleofskye.me.uk.
SKYE Mrs Barbara Christie, Swordale House,Swordale, Broadford, Isle of Skye IV49 9AS, 01471822272, [email protected],www.isleofskye.net/swordalehouse. £18-£24.
SKYE. Double & family en-suite, single with privatefacilities. £28–£35 pppn. 4 course evg meal (£20) byarrangement. Ron & Pam Davison, Tir Alainn, 1/2of 8 Upper Breakish, Skye IV42 8PY. 01471822366,[email protected], www.visitskye.com.
SNOWDONIA Award winning environmentallyfriendly guest house. 3*, home cooking, drying
room, sauna. All rooms en suite, B&B from £22.50.Ann & Bob Cole, Bryn Elltyd, 01766 831356,www.accommodation-snowdonia.com. 5% of mem-bers’ bookings to JMT.
SUTHERLAND, Northern Highlands: overlookingLoch Shin, the Overscaig House Hotel offers peaceand tranquillity with a warm Highland welcome.Visit our web-site www.overscaig.com or call Jan &Martin on 01549 431203. Travel, holidays
Holidays, travel etc.
ANAM CARA offers work weeks and residentialworkshops and retreats in Buddhism, Shamanism,vision quests, sweat lodges, bushcraft, yoga, ChiKung and the heealing arts. For 2007 programmevisit us at www.anamcara.org, 01463 711702,[email protected].
ANDEAN TRAILS South America adventure travelspecialist. Group tours or tailor-made itineraries.Trek, climb, raft or mountain-bike trips – Andes tothe Amazon rainforest – Galapagos cruises and sea-kayaking. www.andeantrails.co.uk, 0131 467 7086.
BEALLICH, a health and activity provider nearGrantown-on-Spey. Yoga, mountaineering, massagesin a stunning setting. Silver Green Tourism Scheme,supporters of Leave No Trace. Patrick or Abby Har-rison, 01807 510242, www.beallich.com.
DOUNE, Knoydart. Pine lodge, groups of up to 12.Excellent food. Fast launch to access Knoydart coast-line & Small Isles for walking, wildlife, photographyetc. Doune, Knoydart, Mallaig, PH41 4PL. 01687462656, www.doune-knoydart.co.uk,[email protected].
ISLAY Bushcraft and Birding. Experience the won-derful wilderness, be part of the nature here onIslay–daily expeditions and week long forays. JeremyHastings, Port Charlotte PA487TX, 01496850010,www.islaybirding.co.uk.
MOROCCO spring 2008. High Atlas rough-stuff,great passes (LR/camping); Cedar Forests Special(bus camping/afoot); Northern sights/cities tour(bus/hotels). Details, SAE Hamish Brown, 26 Kirk-caldy Road, Burntisland, KY3 9HQ, 01592 873546.
MUIR’S TOURS Travel with concern for the envi-ronment and indigenous people. ‘One of the top fiveethical tour operators in the UK’ (S Times). Asia,Australasia, Africa, N & S America. Tel 0118 9502281, www.nkf-mt.org.uk.
NORDIC WALKING courses in beautiful Ross-shirewith a qualified instructor. Small, friendly groups tosuit any level of fitness. Guided walks, instructionand hire of equipment; just come and enjoy. 01997414376, [email protected].
PEAK DISTRICT self guided walking holidays. Mill-stone uplands, limestone valleys, attractive countrytowns & villages. Varied routes include lesser usedpaths. Walk directions, maps, background informa-tion provided, luggage transport & accommodationarranged. [email protected].
SELF-GUIDED walking holidays in UK and Alps.Tour du Mont Blanc, West Highland Way, SwissAlps,French Alps, Julian Alps, Tatras, Lakes, Skye. Followour routecards to explore by yourself. Plus guidedprogram. www.alpineexploratory.com.
SKYAK ADVENTURES Sea kayak expeditions,courses and guiding. BCU level 5 coach. Unique seakayaking experiences in a world-class location. Gor-
don & Morag Brown, Sleat, Isle of Skye. 01471833428, [email protected],www.skyakadventures.com.
VILAYA TOURS based in Chachapoyas, NorthernPeru, the richest archaeological and biodiverse areaof South America. Hotel based and camping treksthroughout the region arranged to suit.www.vilayatours.com, [email protected].
WALKDEESIDE Ltd offer guided walking holidaysin Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms; NNASmountain navigation courses; Cairngorm Munros,W Highland Way, Speyside Way. Quality hotels,local, experienced leaders. Alan Melrose 01339-880081 or [email protected].
WALKING HOLIDAYS with a therapeutic twist,NW Scotland. A complete mind, body & spiritexperience combining walking with a programmeof health, healing and personal development. Tel01349 884618, www.lea-way.co.uk.
WILDERNESS Scotland adventure holidays in theHighlands & Islands. Wilderness walking, sea-kayak-ing, sailing, canoeing, mountain biking, winter walk-ing, ski mountaineering trips. Also specialist familyadventure holiday service. 0131 625 6635,[email protected], www.wildernessscot-land.com.
Services
FINE HARPSICHORDS, spinets and virginals.Making since 1969. Also, harpsichord hire. Repairsand restoration, spares. CD and brochure with ourcompliments. Robert Deegan Harpsichords, Lan-caster. 01524 60186, www.deeganharpsichords.com,[email protected].
HIGH PEAKS of England & Wales, full colourhardback guide to the Corbetts south of Scotland.Originally £8.99, offer price £4.99 (+£1.25 p+p),signed by author Paul Hannon. Cheques to HILL-SIDE, 12 Broadlands, Keighley BD206HX.
KNOYDART LAMB. Small, sweet, naturally reared,jointed, vacuum packed, couriered fresh and freezerready. Available Dec-Feb,whole or half. Membersorders earn JMT £3. Iain & Jo Wilson, InverguserainFarm, Knoydart, Mallaig, PH41 4PL. 01687 462844,[email protected].
SCOTTISH OUTDOOR photo prints. Loch Eil,Knoydart etc. Special offer – 2 prints mounted for£40 (reg. £35 each). Size 8x12 approx, mounted to11.5x15 approx. Offer includes postage within UK.Prints can be viewed onwww.lawsidegraphics.co.uk.
SHIFTIN BOBBINS CEILIDH DANCE BAND. Forall events, central Scotland and beyond. We call andsing. www.shiftinbobbins.co.uk. Helen Ross, 01786832439, [email protected].
SKYE Serpentarium Reptile World, award-winningexhibition, breeding centre & refuge. Frequent han-dling sessions. Excellent coffee shop with gifts. East-er-Oct. Old Mill, Harrapool, Broadford, Isle of SkyeIV49 9AQ. 01471 822209, [email protected], www.skyeserpentarium.org.uk.
WILDERNESS first aid training, Health and Safeyfirst aid training. First aid supplies catering forremote/lone/outdoor workers. National NavigationAwards training. 10% JMT discount, block bookingdiscount. Tel 01594 562974, 0788 142 7507,www.rubiconsolutionsuk.co.uk.
ALL ADVERTISERS!l You’ll need to reconfirm your ad to continue itin 2008 JMT JOURNALS. l We will remind you
by email or letter. l To contact the editor:details on page 1.
for members only
32 John Muir Trust Journal
‘His single measure was beauty.’
W H Murray’s ‘Highland Landscape’ revisited
by BOB AITKEN
WORDL A S T
IGHLAND LANDSCAPE by W H Murray,
published by the National Trust for Scotland
in 1962, is a slim octavo volume of just 80
pages, in a cover of pale blue adorned with a vaguely
art-deco design of harebells. Astonishingly, given its
subject matter, it contains not a single photograph.
But this reticent little bookt has exerted a profound
and sustained influence on the conservation of
landscape in Scotland.
At one level, Highland Landscape is no more than
a consultancy report: the remit was ‘to delineate
areas of outstanding natural beauty, to report on the
distinguishing characteristics of these areas, and to
assess change’. To that end Bill Murray scrutinised 52
regions of the mainland Highlands, identifying 21 as
of outstanding quality. But two factors conspired to
ensure that this was a consultancy report of
exceptional significance. One was its context; the
other its quality.
First was the contemporary context. By 1961 the
‘heroic age’ of hydro-electric development, with an
irresistible dynamism based in part on ideals of
post-war social justice for the Highlands, had
transformed swathes of the Central and Western
Highlands by dams, roads and pylon lines. Its
tendrils were reaching out to absorb remaining
glories such as Glen Nevis and the wild country of
the Fionn-Fada north of Loch Maree. The Forestry
Commission too, in a single-minded drive to
productive plantation forestry, was acquiring, and
carpeting with Sitka, huge tracts of open upland
country. Proposals were afoot for major road
improvements across the Highlands, including new
roads to close notorious gaps, as round Loch
Moidart and from Shieldaig to Torridon.
Countryside planning and conservation were
virtually unknown concepts. At that time, in that
context, NTS were in no doubt that commissioning
Highland Landscape to assert the value of landscape,
and to show that too much of quality had already
been damaged or lost, was an audacious act.
The second and enduring factor is the sublime
talent of Bill Murray. He made no effort to arrive at
objective criteria for landscape quality; his single
measure was beauty – in almost a Keatsian sense, of
beauty as truth. Any quibble as to the subjectivity of
that approach is overwhelmed by the lucid
analytical judgement he brought to the assessment
of his 21 regions, and by the superb landscape
descriptions in which he drew out their distinctive
character. Much quoted ever since, Murray’s
evocations have the essential art of enhancing our
own perceptions of the landscape he describes.
The effect of Highland Landscape was not
dramatic, but it has been pervasive. With Tom
Weir’s campaigning against the Nevis scheme, and
with wider economic and political forces, it helped
to dam the flood of hydro development. It became
part of a swelling wave of conservation awareness
that led in 1967 to the creation of the Countryside
Commission for Scotland. When the Commission
struggled to pioneer convincing techniques for
objective landscape classification, it ultimately fell
back on a subjective evaluation in which the
influence of Highland Landscape’s descriptions
shines out. That is the underpinning of our current
system of National Scenic Areas.
The core message of Highland Landscape is set
out in one carefully measured overview statement:
The outstanding beauty of the Highland scene,
which is one of the nation’s great natural assets, has
been haphazardly expended and no account kept.
That may have been written 45 years ago, but it
applies with dismaying force to our current
situation, where the development of renewable
energy is rampant across Scotland – to good ends
perhaps, but at huge landscape cost. Assessing an
ever-growing stream of single-site developments on
a piecemeal basis, we fail to grasp the final
aggregate impact at the national scale: we are still
not keeping account of what we are losing. Almost
by neglect, we are sacrificing the sublime beauty
and wildness of our landscape, which Bill Murray
asserted with such clear-sightedness and measured
passion.
l Bob Aitken – JMT member 13 – is a freelance
consultant and lecturer in countryside
management and conservation.
H
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